> human of the everfree
>  by Aljazig
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: In a new world
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you ever stretched so much, that you fell into another plane of existence? No? Me neither, until now.

I had just finished the last of my work, on my computer at home, and started my usual series of stretches, when, with a loud bang, I lost consciousness. Next thing I know, I'm in some kind of jungle and hurting all over.

"FUCK! God fucking dammit, fucking piece of shit, that hurts!"

In my defense, it did in fact really hurt. Anyway, after my tantrum, full of all kinds of profanities, that would make even a sailor blush, ended, I started to actually look around. From my masterful observations, it would appear, that I was in a forest, not a jungle as I first assumed. I may not be a biology expert, since I am a physics and chemistry graduate, but I am pretty sure, that there are no oak trees in a jungle. The real problem posed the next thing I looked at, namely my body, after all, I had to find out why my body was aching.

My discovery shocked me into silence. I was small. I was too small.
I had to check my body thoroughly, so I touched the most important part first. It wasn't there! In fact, everything that made me an adult male was taken away and replaced with signs of me being a young girl. I just couldn't accept it. I noticed a bit of the morning dew left on the grass near me. It was gigantic and I could use it as a mirror. So I hoped for the best and looked in it. For a second I was left speechless.

Afterwards... "AHHHHHHH!" My screams echoed through the forest. 
'This could not be happening, ultimately this was impossible, how could I have possibly turned into a girl?! NO, this had to be a dream, there was no other explanation.'

So I tried pinching myself, headbutting a tree, closing my eyes and wishing to wake up, but nothing worked. I was desperate, but can you really blame me? I had suddenly turned into an 8 year old girl, with blood red eyes and black hair, that reached to my hips, and was currently stained with mud and ... Was that ... blood? I had only just now noticed the clothes I was wearing. It would appear I had forgotten to check them in my existential crisis. But they certainly did not help me feel better, since I was wearing a white dress with no underwear and with a big hole in the belly portion. It was also generously stained with blood. And now that I looked more closely, I was lying in a pool of blood, which was weird, since I didn't find any injuries on myself, just signs of slight malnutrition.

'OK, I am perfectly calm, now let's look through all possibilities. Number one, I am asleep, but can't wake up. Impossible, I shouldn't be able to feel pain and at the moment i would feel pain I should wake up, that is the way the human brain functions. Possibility number two, I was kidnapped and my brain was transplanted into a little girl. But then, why would I be in a forest? And what is with all the blood? Hmm. Then there is the possibility number three, my consciousness was somehow teleported into this little girl at the moment she died and the excess energy from the transportation healed the body. From what I have observed the plants around me aren't exactly the same as on Earth and the blood must be mine, since most animals would die of blood loss, and I also don't see any bloody footprints going away from here.'

I had more or less calmed down at this point and was just looking at the facts. But the facts revealed a horrifying truth. There were things in this forest that could make a huge hole in my belly. I had to get out of this forest as quickly and as quietly as I could.

Thus I looked for moss on the trees and deduced the four cardinal directions. Next was the question, which was quite problematic, where do I actually go? I wasn't completely confident in my decision, since I could just be heading further into the forest. So I decided, by just choosing north and hoping that I would land upon civilization soon.
Lucky me, after walking through the forest for a few hours, being careful around suspicious plants, the most prominent between them the bright blue and the bright red ones, I finally saw the edge of the forest.
At that point in time, I was thinking I was so lucky, to have found an exit, but in reality, I was lucky for a whole another reason.

I finally broke the treeline and looked upon the beautiful green meadows, the distant mountains with one having a city near the peak, and the village not 100 meters from the forest. And at that point I understood the impossibility of the situation. 

Humans would never just leave huge patches of space, like those meadows, empty, we would fill them up with fields and houses.

Next, the city on the mountain was completely impossible, from the way it stood, it should have fallen into the valley bellow already, and do I even have to talk about the logistics of supplying a city on a mountain? It just couldn't exist, yet I saw it with my own eyes.

And than the village, the houses were made similar to the ones in the middle ages, just with a lot more color. But that wasn't it, there was a house, maybe a bakery, that looked like it was made from candy, there was a huge tree in the middle of the village, that had a balcony, windows and a door, thus classifying as a house, and there was even a house, that looked like a carousel. It was pure madness, an impossibility after an impossibility. I would say I was sleeping, but I have already confirmed, that I am in fact not.

And than I saw them, the object that confirmed one of two things. Either I had gone completely crazy, or I was transported to another world. Neither possibility was really appealing, as I watched a group of multicolored ponies make their way out of town and seemingly towards the forest.
> Chapter 2: On the run
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I watched the horses, no they were too small so, ponies coming ever closer, something compelled me to move back into the forest and hide behind a few bushes, so they wouldn't see me. I wasn't completely sure, why I did so, so I just assumed, that it was the instincts of this body, even though they shouldn't work that way.
In any case, the ponies stopped a few meters before the entrance to the forest and just stood there for a while. I took that time to take a proper look at them.

There were eight ponies in total, two that had a horn on their heads, so unicorns, I guessed. At that point I didn't even care about how impossible that was, instead I just focused on how they looked.
One unicorn had a white coat and violet swirly main, with diamonds tattooed on her flank, I was guessing that the pony was female because of the mane swirls. The other unicorn wore some kind of golden armor, and was completely white with blonde mane. 

Then there were three ponies with wings, so some kind of a pegasi. One was blue with a rainbow mane and a rainbow lightning tattooed on her or his flank, the second one was yellow with a pink mane and pink butterflies tattooed on her, probably a female, judging by the mane, and the last one also had golden armor and looked almost identical to the first golden armored pony, except for the wings.

There were also two seemingly normal ponies, one was orange with a blond mane, a stetson on his or her head and apples tattooed on her or his flank. The other 'normal' pony was probably the weirdest one, since her/his mane looked like pink candyfloss, not to mention the coat was also incredibly pink. The only signs of any other color on this pony was her tattoo, that showed three balloons, two were light blue and one was yellow.

And the last pony that was in the middle, between all the others had a horn and wings. The pony had a purple coat and a dark blue mane, that had a strip of pink and a strip of dark violet in it. The pony's tattoo was a six-pointed pink star, behind which another six-pointed white star was visible. Around the main star were five smaller six-pointed white stars.
From my observations it was obvious that that pony was the leader of the group, and the ponies with the armor were, the now dubbed purple's, bodyguards.

After they had stopped, seemingly talking, the option of which I didn't dismiss, even though it seemed absurd, the purple one did something that lit up the horn on it's head and soon afterwards a purple wave spread out from the horn in all directions.

Just as it seemed it will reach me, it stopped at the border of the forest, like a wave hitting a wall. For some reason I had a feeling that it was something that allowed the ponies to search for others, but for some reason the forest prevented searching from outside. That would also explain why the ponies were now coming into the forest.

But who were they searching for? Were they searching for me? But why? I had a feeling, that I didn't want to be found and I agreed to this feeling, since I ultimately didn't have enough information to just thrust a species I have never seen.
So when the purple one stepped into the forest, I jumped out of the forest and into some conveniently placed bushes. A few seconds later the violet wave hit the border of the forest, and not even a minute later another wave came.
I waited a few more minutes and the ponies came out of the forest.

Then the purple one did something, I didn't expect. She suddenly made another violet wave. I didn't have enough time to run into the forest, so the wave hit me and immediately bounced back to purple. Then purple's smile spread to look practically predatory, it certainly scared me, and suddenly she made a full on gallop towards my location.
Of course, I turned tail and ran into the forest, but still kept to the border. It was a smart idea to do so, since I could see the next wave coming and I stepped out of the forest to dodge it, then ran on. It seemed that purple figured my idea out, since the ponies kept running on the outside border and purple ran on the inside of the border, so purple could use the wave to make me come out of the forest and then the others could keep an eye on me.

Those were very unfavorable conditions. My body was malnourished and weak, so I was getting tired after only a few minutes of running. They were ponies, they obviously had better stamina than I, so what could I possibly do, to escape this situation? 

'Think, think! What do you know about that wave? The moment it hits me, it bounces back, it isn't disturbed by objects, only by the border, it appears to be two dimensional... Idea!'

So I decided to test my idea, if it failed, I would be caught, like I would be, if I didn't try, but if it worked, maybe I could walk away as a free man, or I guessed girl in this body. 

So I climbed on a tree and waited. I know, genius, right? For some reason I was so proud of myself at that moment. Anyway not long after I climbed on the tree, I saw the purple wave pass under me, but it didn't detect me! Then, not 15 meters behind the wave was the purple pony. 

'Shit! I didn't even realize the purple one was so close!' While I was thinking that the purple one stopped and was joined by the other ponies. I pressed my back against the tree trunk and put my legs more together on the branch I was sitting on, so they hopefully wouldn't see me. From my position I could hear their whole conversation with general ease. The were only about 2, maybe 3 meters away from the three and weren't particularly quiet. The conversation went something like this:

"So Twilight, did you find her?" asked the blue pegasus.

"Rainbow, how do you suppose I find something, that doesn't show up on my search spell?" answered and asked the now named twilight, that was renamed from purple. The question was followed by another purple wave, that went under me.

"Maybe she is to far away Twilight, my dear?" Asked the purple maned unicorn. She had a posh, slightly British accent.

"No, that would be impossible, I am extending my search radius through half of the Everfree and you didn't see her come out of the forest. There are only two possibilities." Said twilight.

"An', those are?" Asked the orange normal pony, with a southern accent.

"She either somehow died, while we were trying to catch her, or-" Started Twilight, before the pink pony rudely interrupted her: "Shefiguredouttheproblemwithyourspell, right?"
"Hey, I am not rude!" Said the pink one afterwards towards the air.

"Pinkie, what do you mean? What problem?" Asked the purple maned unicorn, with genuine confusion.

'It seems, that usually so called spells don't have exploits', I thought to myself.

"The spell I am using searches for anything I want, but only in two dimensions, which means, that if you can see the spell, you can avoid it. Since I have been able to confirm, that she is one of the few sentient humans, and that she can see magic, something, even us ponies can't do, it is possible, that she managed to deduce, that she won't be detected, if she dodges the magic." Answered Twilight.

'It would appear, that she has been able to study the girl whose body I am in possesion of, before the girl escaped. It would also seem, that other humans in this world are incapable of rational thinking, at least as far as the ponies are concerned. And let's not forget, MAGIC EXISTS!!! And I can SEE it!' While I was thinking about all of the information I had just received, I overheard something troubling.

"Since it is possible, that she exploited the problem of the spell, I will now use a three dimensional version of the same spell." Said Twilight.

I was panicking. Twilight was starting to charge her horn and I still didn't know how to escape, so I just pressed myself to the three more and prayed to any kind of deity out there, that she wouldn't find me.

The energy discharged from the horn and a purple bubble started spreading out in all directions.
> Chapter 3: The way back, a mysterious path
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The purple bubble had almost reached me and I couldn't do anything, except pray for a miracle. And a miracle I got. At the moment, when the bubble should have bounced of me back, I felt something inside me and could feel it wanting to come out. So I let it, I had nothing to lose, the situation probably couldn't get much worse. And then I was covered by gray energy and the purple bubble just passed me by.

After a few moments Twilight frowned and said: "Celestia dammit, she must have died." She was obviously unhappy with the results of her search, but couldn't do anything about it.

"Don't worry Twilight dear, there must be other humans capable of seeing magic, and when we find them, you can study to your hearts content." Said the pony with the purple mane.

"Yes, yes, you're right Rarity. I just wish, I could at least find her body, so I could dissect her." Said Twilight to the now named Rarity.

'Well that doesn't sound good at all. Would she have dissected me even if I was still alive? Thank whatever instincts compelled me to run.' I thought while peeking through the branches of the tree at the ponies.

"Well, since the human ain't here, ah think, we should go back now. This forest ain't safe." Said the orange one, and the others all nodded or made sounds of agreement.

I decided to follow them since I didn't want to get lost and I was hoping, I could at least sneak into the village to grab supplies, I couldn't find in the forest, like clothing or medication. So I waited a few minutes for them to be at a distance, where I didn't think they could surprise me, and climbed down from the tree I was hiding on.

10 minutes of walking later I heard a loud explosion from the group I was following. I hurried to a few bushes nearby and hid, while trying to see what the ponies were doing. What I saw didn't inspire any confidence in me at all, since I witnessed the pony named Twilight bombard a giant wolf made of wood, until all that remained of it were ashes, which, now that I think about it, probably wasn't that hard to do, since she was using fire type spells. After that phenomenon, the ponies just calmly continued walking, while I was freaking out, on the fact that one pony could handle a monster like that with no visible effort.

'I hope I can learn magic too, so I will be able to stand up to the ponies in case they find me.' I thought while  observing the pile of ashes that was left from the giant wolf.

And so I followed the ponies for a few hours, always being careful to not get to close, when they stopped for one reason or another. I managed to listen in to a few more conversations, from which I learned, that the yellow one's name was Fluttershy, they called the rainbow maned one RD or Rainbow, they never mentioned what the D in RD stood for. The ponies with the armor were, in fact, guards and they only responded to a command from Twilight. The extremely pink one was called pinkie from what I overheard, but I wasn't sure if that was actually her name or just a nickname, because she is so pink.

There were many things I thought about during the hours I walked. I almost started thinking about my family and home, but I crushed the thoughts, since I needed to focus on the situation and weeping wouldn't really help me. 'I know I will have to deal with it sooner or later, but I still have to find myself a place to stay the night and the thought of going into the village asking for help isn't really appealing, since they would probably capture me and possibly dissect me. I also want to find a map or something to at least find out, where and when I am, after all, it is possible, that I landed in the past or in the future on earth. After I find the current date I can then use the map to confirm if I have been teleported to another world or traveled in time. Neither is really favorable, since both mean, there is a high possibility, I can't go back to my family.' After I crushed that thought, I noticed, that the ponies in front of me had breached the treeline and when I moved some low hanging branches, I could clearly see the village, where the hunt on me started. I also noticed an old, barely used path going into the forest, and when I followed it with my eyes, I could see, it continued through the forest. I decided on following it, since it could lead me to another settlement, where there wouldn't be a psycho pony on my ass every minute of the day.

As I continued following the path, the forest seemed to darken and the path started looking more and more grown over by the plants of the forest. After a while of walking I came across a cliff. When I looked, to see how deep it was, I could just barely see the path at the bottom. There the path took a turn away from the cliff and soon I could see a river ahead. When I got close to the river I heard humming and decided to hide behind a nearby rock, since I wasn't sure who could be so carefree in a forest filled with dangerous animals. I almost failed to stifle my cry of surprise, when I saw a giant sea serpent combing it's hair back in the water. I quickly hid back, already devising a plan to distract the sea serpent, so I could swim to the other side of the river, where the path continued.

As I executed my master plan, of throwing a rock at the tree on the opposite side of the river and away from the path, I made sure to step into the water as quietly as I could, while I watched as the sea serpent turned towards the tree where I threw my rock. And only then did I notice, just how shallow the water actually was at this part of the river, that was probably the reason, nobody built a bridge. As I hurriedly moved through the water being careful not to make too much noise, I noticed, the serpents head moving, as though it was going to look straight at me. For a second I panicked and than I had a great idea, that could save me.

So I laid into the water.
> Chapter 4: The bridge and the tunnel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I laid into the water with my belly facing down. I made sure I didn't disturb the water too much and then I could only hope, the sea serpent didn't see me underwater. I held my breath and counted.

5 seconds passed. I couldn't be sure the serpent didn't see me, so I didn't dare raise my head above water. I had also just realized, how bad this position is. Everything depended on luck. If I was lucky enough, I would raise up from the water, after the serpent went back to combing it's hair. If I was unlucky the serpent would notice me and then who knows, what would happen to me.

another 10 seconds passed. I wasn't used to holding my breath, since I always used a snorkel whenever I went to the sea, so I knew I would have to take a breath in the next 10 seconds, otherwise I would panic and made quite a bit of noise when I went above water for air.

After 5 more seconds I slowly lifted my head above water, and looked towards the serpent while taking a deep breath, just in case I needed to go underwater again. Thankfully the serpent was busy improving it's mustache, so I managed to quietly sneak to the shore opposite the one I started on, where I then hid behind a tree.

While I took a breather I thought about everything, that has happened to me, and immediately regretted thinking about it. I gently pushed myself off of the trunk of the tree on which I was leaning and continued on the path, that was cut into the forest ages ago, by the looks of it.

I followed the path to a ravine, beyond which I could see a big castle, that obviously had help falling apart, judging by the different sized holes in the few standing walls.

'I shouldn't be surprised, seeing what Twilight did, but it's still amazing to see what magic can do.' as I thought that I continued looking for a way to cross the ravine and that is when I saw it. It was a simple suspension bridge, and possibly the worst made bridge ever, or maybe it was just the fact, that the stakes that were holding the ropes were rotten and the boards you were supposed to step on were mostly broken and paper thin. I would be surprised if it could hold more than a kilo (2.2 pounds), before falling apart. There was no way, I was willingly crossing that bridge, so I had to think of something else. 

I wanted to get to the castle, since it was highly likely, that, since the ponies have magic, at least the castle library was enchanted to not rot, so I could get some information. The castle itself might be able to also serve as a home, since it stands on an easily defensible location, with only one visible entrance. Although I didn't know the state of the interior, on the outside the castle didn't look that bad.

But I had no idea what to do about the bridge. I couldn't build one, since I had no materials to do so, there also was no convenient dead tree, that I could just push to make a bridge, and there was a higher chance of hell freezing over, than me jumping the gap. And then I had a great idea.

'The inhabitants of the castle surely made another way out, after all, it would be hard for any vehicles or bigger groups to make it into the castle otherwise.' or so I thought, but after I went around the castle once, I realized my mistake. The inhabitants were probably ponies, and who would have to use anything more than a suspension bridge, if they could just make their cargo float next to them. And if they used pegasi, they could probably transport anything over the air with no need for a bridge at all.

'Still, every castle on earth had at least one secret exit, so the people in the castle could escape from the invaders. There must be one, it may be hidden, but god dammit, if I don't find it. I will search every last inch of the surrounding area, if I have to, so the only way, it will be able stay hidden will be if it's magic or something... Wait, wait, wait, that thought, why didn't I think of this before? They are magic ponies, of course they would hide the secret exit using magic. If I remember correctly Twilight said something about me being able to see magic, if I could just figure out, how to do that, I could then look for the magic hiding the secret entrance to the castle.' I practically started jumping at my brilliant thought process, but I still didn't realize, there was one small flaw in my plan.

2 hours later
How do I see magic?! I had been trying to activate my "magic sight", as I decided to call it, for the better part of the last two hours and I have been failing miserably. I tried straining my eyes to see something beyond, but that just served to give me a headache. Next I tried to concentrate and that went a little better, since I could feel something flowing behind my eyes, but the moment I opened them, the cold feeling retreated. And so, I tried again and again. But now I had enough. I turned towards the castle and started stomping towards it with the power of Hercules behind my every step but when I was another few steps away from the ravine, the ground underneath me gave and I fell about 5 feet, thankfully being able to roll out the fall, as to not damage the young body I now resided in. I looked around and intelligently decided against screaming into the darkness of the tunnel, as to not attract any predators, that might have made their home in it.

As I looked into the tunnel a stray thought found it's way into my head: 'What, if this is what I was looking for? Maybe, luck finally smiled upon me and I fell into the secret entrance to the castle.' I was all giddy at the thought of being the lucky one for once, so I courageously started walking into the darkness.

The tunnel started out wide enough for me to reach both of my hands out and just barely touch the sides, on the other hand the ceiling started out so low, that even me with my 35 inches tall frame, had to at least lower my head, to be able to go through. after the first few steps the tunnel started going down and both the ceiling started rising and the walls spaced out quite a bit.

After walking for another 30 minutes, the tunnel finally started going up, but just as it seamed, like I really was blessed by lady luck, my bad luck decided to come back. Just at the exit of the tunnel, where I could see the mossy walls of the castle, there were spiders. And no, I don't mean the small spiders, that you are afraid as a kid, no I mean spiders the size of a basketball. Some were bigger, some were smaller, but the biggest problem was, that there was at least a hundred of them and I didn't have a weapon.

As if god decided to screw with me some more, all of the spiders at once turned towards me and we stared into each other's eyes. After what felt like an eternity, I accidentally blinked and the spiders took that as the signal for attack.
> Chapter 5: Spiders and a dream
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me tell you, trying to outrun a horde of spiders is very hard, especially in a tunnel, where they can walk on the ceiling and spit webs at you, while all you can do is just keep running and dodging the previously mentioned projectiles. Even with these hopeless odds, I still ran.

And then one of the spiders landed on me, making me fall on the ground, with the spider on top of me, pinning me to the ground. And then, it turned me around and formed, what i guessed passed for a mouth on a spider, into a crooked smile and started to produce a sound uncomfortably similar to laughter. As if to make me more uncomfortable and even a bit scared, the other spiders joined the one on top of me. Now that I had the time to look, it was obvious, that the spider that caught me, was the biggest one.

But that laughter, really irritated me and after a minute of I had enough. So I took advantage of the fact, the giant spider forgot to pin my hands, took his front-right leg into my hands and with power even I was amazed at and a sickening crack, I broke it off.

For a second there was absolute silence. Then the spider screeched like a banshee, got off of me and started running around, still making the noise. Sadly that was a bad decision for it to make at the moment, since my nerves were already running short from the previous laughing, I decided to test my newfound strength on the spider, by running parallel to it and when I was absolutely sure, I would hit, I cave the spiders head in with a punch, then finished it off with a kick, that sent the spider flying into the wall, where it splattered, leaving a blue stain with the legs and other harder parts stuck to it.

After that happened I turned towards all of the other spiders, only to see them fleeing from me in terror. The problem was, they were running in the direction of the castle, where I wanted to get to. So I ran after them, hoping to outrun them with my newly discovered strength. 

That proved to be a problem a few minutes after I started to run, as I started to feel lightheaded and not long after I was suffering a head-splitting headache. I had no choice, but to stop, so I looked at the walls of the tunnel, looking for any sort of cavity in the smooth tunnel walls.

Luckily I found one, about 10 feet further. I quickly checked for any spiders and after making sure, I would be relatively hidden, I fell asleep in this world, for the first time.





I am home, sitting in front of the fireplace. The crackling of the fire gives the perfect ambiance to the book I am reading. Suddenly, my sister breaks the silence: "&#)&*, when are we going to the movies, again?".

I sigh and for the 3rd time answer: "Ann, we are going to the movies at 5. It's still 3 in the afternoon, so we have another hour and a half to get ready, before we have to go. And please, for the love of everything that is holy, remember to take your phone with you!"

She smiles in that mischievous way, only children with fun in mind can smile. Not like I can blame her, she is only 12 years old. Perfect age for doing pranks without a lot of consequences.

"Watch out, that smile might get you in trouble." I say with a smile.

"Oh, not you too! Everyone always tells me my smile looks exactly like our mom's, and I hate it! When she smiles in this way, she just looks creepy." She pouts while at the same time glaring at me, demanding with her eyes, that I say she doesn't look like mom.

But now that I look at her again, my sister is starting to look more like mother, the older she gets. She has mom's smile and also inherited the brown hair, that went well with her light skin tone, and the short nose from her. But her brown eyes are from father. I on the other hand got my eyes from my mother.

"Who has a creepy smile, young lady?" Says my mom with a seemingly angry expression. She has been standing in the doorway, for the whole time of our exchange. My sister didn't know that, but I have a great look on the door, since it is just right of the fireplace.

"Oh! mom, uh, nobody, I was just telling &#)&* that some smiles are creepy." My sister always has always had a way with talking, so she could normally convince anyone to believe her. Her problem is, that she is a terrible liar, so it came as no surprise, when mom saw right through her lie.

"Ann, we talked about this." Says mom with a frown on her face. She really dislikes lying and doesn't want us to lie.

"Yes, mom. I'm sorry." Answers Ann, with a genuinely sad expression. Probably because she hates to disappoint mom.

"Oh, would you look at the time! &#)&*, you and Ann better get ready. And remember, &#)&*, if you drink anything, don't be afraid to call me. Ann, keep an eye on your brother, and don't forget your phone, we don't want another shopping mall incident." Says mom, first looking at me with serious eyes and then at Ann with a small, almost invisible smile, tugging at her lips, as she mentions the shopping mall incident. Let's just say, it involved phones, Ann getting lost, mom getting lost and father finding them, while also being lost. At the end I was the one to drag them all outside. I don't even know, how they got into the storage area.

As mom warns us, I look to the clock on the wall. It reads 16:20, so I get off the couch and head to my room, where I dress appropriately. Me and Ann head to the car and I start driving, to the cinema. Ann just can't keep her excitement in, so she starts rambling about, the characters of the movie. Since we are heading to watch the 3rd installment of a movie series, that she is a huge fan of, it's obvious she would know most of the usual characters.

But, as we are driving up to a crossroads, I suddenly blank out and the next thing I know, there is a truck heading straight for our car.

Time slows down, as I look to my sister, who is still rambling. Then I look towards the truck again, and all I can do is say: "Sorry mom, I crashed.". With tears streaming down my face I watch in slow motion, as the truck impacts the car and then everything speeds up to normal speed. The last thing I see is Ann's scared face.
> Chapter 6: Starting fires with chemistry
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up with a start. After feverishly checking my surroundings, confirming I was still in the tunnel as a little girl, I finally managed to calm down and think rationally.

'It was just a dream. None of that ever happened, me and my sister got to the cinema safely and watched the movie, before heading back home. There was no crash, the road was almost empty. That dream must have been a consequence of everything that has happened.' That went on for about an hour, before I pulled myself together and continued walking in the direction of the castle.

While walking I thought about what to do about the spiders. I hoped they would still be scared of me because of yesterday's incident, but I decided not to count on it. I had to think of a way to either scare them away or, if I have to, kill them. Sadly that would pose quite a problem, if I didn't figure out why I became so strong, so I could replicate it or think of another solution.

'If I could just use yesterday's strength, this wouldn't be a problem. Maybe it was something in the tunnel walls?' As I was thinking, I just barely noticed a faint glint of something black on one of the walls. Due to the faint light I managed to find the thing that reflected the light. I was surprised when I felt the rough yet at some parts smooth texture and soon started laughing, when i accidentally flaked it into two pieces. I turned towards the entrance from where the small amount of light in the tunnel was coming from and just reveled in the sight of two pieces of black flint in my hands. At that moment I was thankful that mother would always force me to go with her to different museums of geology. Then my happiness got obliterated, as I remembered, that one of the two things I would need to start a fire would be a piece of steel, so I could generate enough sparks to actually start the process of burning.

'Huh, now that I'm thinking about fire, I just realized how warm it actually is. It must be somewhere in the middle of the summer. I guess it's just another difference from home, where it was late November. Anyway, onto more important matters of creating fire.' I kept thinking of ways to light a fire, since that was the easiest way to defend myself from the spiders.

If I wanted to use flint to make the fire, I would have to either find a piece of steel just laying around, which was highly unlikely, or, I could try to find iron pyrite, an ore that, if found in its powder form, can quickly decompose into iron oxide and sulfur while exposed to oxygen. The process is exothermic, meaning it results in an explosion. On the other hand, if I managed to find it in it's crystal form, I could easily start a fire by striking the flint against it. 

'Mining for iron pyrite, also called fool's gold, because of it's golden color, would be incredibly dangerous, but maybe I could find some in crystal form on the ground, near the flint deposit.' Thinking that, I got to work, trying to spot the golden sheen of the fool's gold in the little light the sun provided in the tunnel.

2 hours later I finally managed to find something that looked vaguely correct. In my stupidity I decided it would be a good idea to strike flint against it the moment I got my hands on it. The result was as expected seeing the iron pyrite was in the tunnel for a long time. Instead of just blindly striking the two crystal formations together, I should have gone out of the tunnel, made a fire and then come back carefully with a shield. Since I didn't do any of that, the moment a spark flew into the air, the air itself seemingly ignited and the explosion started to go in all directions. I didn't even have time to do anything, I could only stand there and watch as the explosion slowly drew closer.

'Ah, I guess that is it. No way I can survive that, the flames of the explosion should be around the temperature of 630°C (1160°F) and even if I do manage to survive, I will certainly die because of high levels of sulfur dioxide that would be created.' I thought about all of that while still staring into the incoming blaze.

Then I realized. I was still breathing as normal, so either I was breathing so fast that it would be felt in this kind of moment, or something else was going on.

"Go, while you still can, I won't be able to hold it for much longer."

I could hear a voice, but it was coming from everywhere and I really didn't have the time to question, who was helping me, so I just ran, as fast as I could, towards the exit of the tunnel. I just managed to get out and throw myself behind a few nearby boulders, when the ground where the tunnel was, exploded in a raging blaze. Not long after the fire subsided, it was followed by a thick wail of toxic smoke, that would kill anything, that got too close as was demonstrated, when a bird flew from some nearby trees towards the castle and passed by the smoke. It was dead before it hit the ground.

I just cut of my only way to get to the castle for at least a day. That would mean I would have to spend the night outside, not even in a tunnel, but out in the open, where a predator might attack me at any moment. I wouldn't have that. I had to get to the castle today. 

I started making calculations: 'It took me about 20 seconds to get from the point of the explosion to the exit at full sprint. From there to the spider den it should be another 10 seconds of sprinting and from there to the entrance to the castle shouldn't be more than a few meters, meaning that I would have to hold my breath for about 35 seconds, just to be safe. If I inhale even once, I am dead.'

It should have been impossible for me, especially in this body, yet something was telling me, I could do it. But I am not a moron, even though some of my actions would indicate to that. So I tested myself on holding my breath while running at top speed along the edge of the castle's ravine. I just managed to clear the 35 second mark, before almost passing out.
I was good to go and there was nothing, that could stop me. Except the fact, I would have to run blind.

I sadly realized that fact too late. As I ran towards the smoke and the entrance to the tunnel I was just thinking, I could do it, if I hurried. The moment I stepped into the smoke, I realized how wrong I was. Every open hole on my body burned, like acid was being poured into them. My eyes were instantly in excruciating pain and I couldn't see absolutely anything. All I could do to hopefully survive, was just keep running and hoping I made it.

So I ran.
> Chapter 7: Survival and history
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

All I could do was just keep running. The tunnel had two turns, a right and a left, but since I remembered them and the right turn slowly lead into the left turn, I knew I could just sprint the whole way without hitting a wall, even while blinded. In the  worst case scenario I would scrape along the walls, but that wouldn't be that bad as long as I didn't stop.

What was bothering me, was that 10 seconds in, my skin was starting to itch and my lungs were starting to burn, from the lack of air. But I couldn't stop, I had to run for another 25 seconds and there was no way I would stop before that.

After 25 seconds I felt lightheaded and my mind was starting to scream at me, to take a breath. 

'I can't take a breath right now, I mustn't! But why can't I? I just have to breath in through my nose and then breath out, it should be easy, right? No! If I start taking in air now, I'm going to die! But won't I die if I don't get some air into my lungs soon? Just another 10 seconds and then I can breath as long as I want. But wouldn't it be easier to do it now? Plus there is no guarantee I can actually reach the exit in 10 seconds. NO, SHUT UP!' Even while my mind was getting more and more jumbled, I just kept sprinting towards what I hoped was the exit.

25 seconds passed, and I was still running. My mind was almost completely blank, the only thing in it was the thought of getting air.

28 seconds passed, and I couldn't do it anymore. Without opening my eyes, I stopped, took a deep breath and waited. And waited. And waited.

30 seconds passed and I finally had the courage to open my eyes. When I did, I almost started jumping from joy, the only thing stopping me, was the fact I would most likely puke all over the floor if I did. What I saw around me, were thick stone walls, surrounding an old well. The entrance to the tunnel was at the other end of the courtyard about 15 meters (32.8 feet) away from me, and like on the other end, thick smoke was rising towards the open sky.

I decided to just sit down and take some time to stabilize my breathing and think about what had happened.

'There are a lot of things I don't know. For example, what was that voice, that was keeping the explosion at bay? Why was this castle abandoned? Why are humans here treated like animals on earth? Why can't I see magic, even though the ponies said I could? There are just too many questions. If I can find the library, then maybe I can learn something, that is, if any the books are still in the shape to be read and if I can even read them.' Having gone over the most important things at the moment I stood up on my wobbly legs, still tired from the run, but excited to finally find out more about this world.





Turns out I didn't have to worry about the language barrier, since everything was written in English, albeit old English, but still. I also didn't have to worry about the books falling apart, they were probably enchanted or something, so that they were immune to the passage of time. That is why 2 hours after starting my search, I was sitting in a still solid and comfortable rocking chair with a thick book in my hands.

The title of the book was: Short history of Equestria. It wasn't really all that interesting, the only major events were the unification of the three pony tribes and the end of the Discordian era. There was also a mention of the Crystal war and the imprisonment of Tirek, whoever that was, but it didn't really catch my attention. I did learn the names of the two seemingly immortal rulers. There was the ruler of the day, princess Celestia, who could apparently move the sun and there was the ruler of the night, princess Luna, who could, according to the book, move the moon. I tried to find any explanation as to why they were called princesses instead of queens, but couldn't find anything. And then, when I was going to the nearby shelf to put away the book, I noticed it.

It was an ordinary book, except for the tittle: Everything you need to know about humans. It was like it was there just for me, like I was meant to read it, so I did.

To summarize, the book first talked about humans as a species. Nobody knows where they came from, it is a well known fact that they evolved out of monkeys and most importantly,  humans don't and can not posses magic. The book than went on to the fact that all living beings with sentience have at least a little magic and since humans have no magic, they aren't even animals. They are actually in a class below animal, created just for species like them, called magicless. That class of beings has been since olden times used as slaves, combat or otherwise, as toys or even as sacrifices in the darker eras of pony kind. To conclude, I was at the absolute bottom of the food chain, with even slugs above me.

I was crushed. Forget about a normal life, I couldn't even show myself in a town without a collar and a name tag! Then, I saw something interesting. At the complete bottom of the page, is said: There was one time in history, when a human possessed the ability to see magic, but still couldn't use it. You can find more on the topic in the book: Magic in humans? by Starswirl.

I immediately searched for the book and when I finally found it at the top of the third shelf, completely dedicated to this Starswirl. I grabbed it and went back to the rocking chair, where I sat down and full of hope opened the book. It read:

Subject: deceased
'Well shit.'

Age: 14
'So young!'

Reason: Magic overload. After a detailed autopsy it has been found out why the subject could see, hear and at the end of it's life even feel magic. It appears that it had been, instead of generating magic itself, pulling magic from outside into itself. As the magic entered it's body through the easiest means, the eyes, it could at first only see magic, afterwards, as more magic flowed into the subject, its smallest magic pores opened, allowing magic to flow through the ears. At the end of it's life the subject's magic pool grew too large for the magic to be contained causing it to burst open the magic pores all over the subject's body. That in turn allowed magic to pour directly through the subjects magic pores, effectively pumping the subject full of magic without any means of getting it out.

'So that will happen to me too?! I will start to hear magic, then feel magic and then I'm going to die?! But if I find a way to get magic out of me, I could survive right? That just means I need to use magic, right? I have to figure out how to cast spells!'

As I searched for a book on spells, something moved away from the wall it was leaning against and approached me through my blind spot.
> Chapter 8: The ghost and a name
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What are you doing?" I was absorbed in my search for a book on spells, so I, at the time, didn't think anything about the voice coming from behind me.

"I'm searching for a book on easy spells." I answered simply, still looking carefully through the shelves for anything that might help me.

"Then you are looking in the wrong section. You should go to the 4th row and find the book on the 3rd shelf. The Starswirl section is too much for a beginner." Commented the voice.

"What would you know,  you are probably just-" I turned around while talking and stopped abruptly when I saw who, or better yet, what was standing behind me.

The closest I could guess, he, as I ascertained from his voice, was a ghost, he certainly looked the part, with the transparent, almost see-through body and the fact he was floating a few inches off the ground. He looked like a human, about 15 years old, maybe less. He had dark brown hair and light blue eyes, at least I thought he did, since I couldn't see him well, him being transparent and all. All in all, he looked like a child, except for his eyes. Eyes that showed he saw too much of the world for his age.

"Um, sorry, I haven't introduced myself, My name is &#)&*." The moment I said my name, the ghost shut his eyes and pressed his hands on his ears, slouching forward, like he was in pain.

'Huh?! What did I do?! I just told him my name! I didn't know ghosts can feel pain! Does he need help? How do I help him?!' My thoughts were a jumbled mess, before a sharp cough cut through them and made me focus on the situation at hand.

The ghost was floating in front of me, looking completely recovered and instead of angry yelling, I was expecting from him, seeing as it was probably me, that had hurt him, I got a hum, like when you find something fascinating and hum in interest. That was followed with a simple statement: "Well, that was an experience."

I wasn't sure if he was joking or if he was serious. He looked like he was in horrendous pain before, wasn't he even a little bit angry? I decided not to ask that, as to not remind him, to actually be angry, and instead stated: "Are you alright?".

It was a simple question, yet he started laughing like I told him the best joke he had heard in years. After he managed to quell his laughter, he answered in the same kind voice he has used since meeting me: "I'm quite alright, little one. I was just surprised since it has been so long since I last felt pain. It almost made me feel like I was alive again. But I do wonder, what did you say, to make me feel pain?".

"I just told you my name." At this point I was quite curious, why would even a ghost feel pain from hearing my name from back on Earth?

"Hmm. You wouldn't happen to be possessing that little girl, right?" He asked with suspicion clear on his face. The statement took me of guard, so it took me a few seconds to manage a coherent reply.

"Of course not! I just know that one second I was home stretching after a day of hard work and the next I was in this body in the middle of the forest." Was my quick explanation. I hoped that he wouldn't try to exorcise me or something, because I wasn't sure if I could count myself as possessing someone or becoming someone.

"Ah, I see, sorry your name sounded like something a being beyond the veil would say, so I thought you might be one. But it appears I was mistaken, you just had the misfortune of accidentally jumping dimensions and landed here, where the girl you now are, died just moments before. The additional energy from your transfer must have healed the body and fused your mind with it." Said the ghost, dropping all kinds of bombs on me.

"Wait how do you know the girl died? And what do you mean, beings beyond the veil? What does it mean that my mind fused with this body?" I asked in need of answers, especially to the first question. After all, I would rather posses a body of a person who died of natural or unnatural causes instead of me killing them or outright replacing their still living minds with my own. I know it sounds cruel and like I don't care about people dying, but it would still make me feel better to at least still have metaphorically clean hands.

"First: I do believe you haven't changed your clothes yet and you look like you only wet yourself in a river, you forgot to wash off the blood and grime. all that points to you either, getting hurt badly in which case you wouldn't be up and about like you are, or the girl before you losing her life in a rather horrible way. Second: We do not talk about the beings beyond the veil, EVER. Third: It is exactly as it seems, the body you are in now, is your body. You aren't possessing it or replacing the previous user, it is yours. And really you have to change your clothes." He brought up some good points. By the hole in the clothes in my belly area I could guess something tore through the girl's belly, and most people don't survive that kind of a wound alone in a forest. I still didn't understand the whole 'beyond the veil' thing, but I could guess it's something similar to void dwellers, as we called the weird beings on earth. And it would also appear that he couldn't exorcise me out of this, no, mine body, since it was, well, mine. As for the last thing he said, ...

I looked down at myself, only now realizing, I was still in the torn up dress, I was wearing when I woke up in the forest. 'I can't believe I was able to actually run with this on me!' Were my eloquent thoughts, while gazing at the torn up parts, just imagining what would have happened, if I tripped on any of them while running from the ponies.

"Yes, about that, you wouldn't happen to know where I would be able to find some human clothing in this castle, would you?" I asked with a hopeful expression. While yelling 'say yes!' over and over in my head.

He laughed mirthfully and nodded, before saying: "And while we walk there I can answer any more questions you may have, maybe I can even teach you a bit about magic in the future, I have after all read all of the books of this library, so I think I could handle teaching someone. Now, follow me."

And so I did. While we were moving through the stone corridors of the castle, making turns every now and then, I got curious and started talking: "Um, so, you said you could teach me magic, right?"

He suddenly got a look of regret on his face and said: "Sadly, I can only teach you about magic, since I am unable to use magic myself. For some reason the only things a ghost like me can do are travel through walls, float and turn invisible, but none of that are magic."

"But I think your existence in itself is magic. That theory is just proven right with the fact that your magical form can disappear, can fly and can squeeze through the holes making up the walls." I said, presenting my theory to him with a grin. I may not know much about magic, but I sure can make a solid theory with the facts I am provided. Then again, I have been wrong and I was assuming that magic worked under similar principles as all of the other particles.

"Thank you, it's so nice to finally have someone to talk to, who doesn't just scream at you to go away, the moment you show yourself. There have even been ponies that have tried to exorcise me. As I am still here I think you can guess that they failed." Said the ghost with a smile.

"I know what you mean, those ponies really think of humans as even worse than animals. By the by, you never introduced yourself after my attempt failed." I had just remembered, he never told me his name.

"Ah, right, knew I was forgetting something. My name is Zero Control, it's a self given name, something you should think about if you don't want to give everyone around you a migraine every time you say your name." He answered and commented. I pouted a bit at that, but decided that it was probably a good idea in case I met any creature that was nice to me.

"Hm, I guess, for now, you can call me, ... Night Fairy."
> Chapter 9: Magic is complicated
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Fairy, huh. A good name. Then from now on I will call you Fairy or Night." Said Control with a smile, floating a bit further off the ground than before.

"Please call me Night in front of other creatures, it would look weird if you called me Fairy." I said hoping he would remember it.

"And why would it look weird? It would just be me calling you by your last name. How would that be weird?" Said the moron floating before me, not understanding why addressing a person as a fairy while being a ghost could have problematic consequences.

"OK, listen carefully, you empty headed ghost, if you called me a fairy in front of others, they could mistake it as a ghost talking to a real fairy, or even worse, they could mistake me for a fairy of death or something, since I would be talking to a ghost. Except if fairies don't exist here, but since ghosts exist I find that highly improbable." I answered, then took a breath to calm down from my rant. 

'It's been a while since the last time someone annoyed me this much. If i remember correctly, the last time would be my sister, when she kept asking why she can't drive in the front passenger seat. My sister...'

I was broken out of my thoughts as Zero asked me: "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, why do you ask?" I answered and asked back, confused at the sudden inquiry.

"You're crying." Answered Zero. I reached to my eyes and sure enough tears were flowing from them, one after another.

'It seems I don't yet have full control of this body's functions, if I couldn't even tell I was crying.' I thought while wiping the tears off my face.

"Don't mind it Zero, everything is fine." I said with a smile. It was a fake one, but I hoped it fooled him, so he wouldn't try to find out why I was crying.

And at that time, I decided I wouldn't ever let the fact I was away from my friends and family, get me down. I was going to remember them, but would never cry at the thought of them again. At least that was what I though at the time, it would be at a later time that I would completely accept I could never see them again.

"Anyway, you said you could tell me about magic, right?" I asked the ghost floating beside me while still walking down the long castle corridors.

"Ah, yes, magic. It is a fairly complex thing to learn, but we'll see how much you understand and go from there. So, magic on Terra is everywhere, in the air, the plants and animals. Some species are anomalies, that don't poses any magic, but most of them can draw the magic they need from the air or even from other species. Humans are currently the only known species who is incapable of that, with the exception of you and the human from 1200 years ago. Anyway, most species use their magic unconsciously, like earth pony's when they grow crops and-" He was interrupted by my cough, the type you give, when you want somebody to look at you.

He took one look at my blank face and understood, then said: "Ah, right, gotta start from there. So, ponies are divided into three tribe, earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns. In each tribe magic manifests differently. Unicorns can use their horns as mediums to weave spells, earth ponies normally unconsciously discharge their magic into the ground to speed up the growth of plants, but if they practice enough and they have enough magic, they should, in theory, be able to control the earth around them to a degree. The pegasi subconsciously utilize their magic to push wind under their wings and to stand on clouds. Similarly to earth ponies, if they train enough they can control wind and even discharge bolts of lightning at will."

'And I somehow survived running from these monsters for 10 minutes and even escaped!' Zero just laughed at my incredulous expression, although I think he misunderstood why I was making it, and continued with his explanation.

"Anyhow, as I was saying before, most species use their magic subconsciously but can train themselves to use it in a similar manner to a unicorn. The difference is, that unicorns must first create a spell matrix sufficient for the wanted spell in their minds and then they must infuse said spell matrix with the necessary magic. On the other hand other species that train themselves to use magic, use it by willing the magic to do as they want. The problem with that method is that you have to train long and hard, so you gain the proper discipline to control the magic. The last time an inexperienced pegasus tried it, the magic went wild and the end result was a lightning bolt, that killed him on the spot."

'This is some serious shit, better listen carefully, I'm not really sure about dying in an explosion, no matter how glorious it is.'

"For that reason, I think you can understand why I want to first teach you about spell matrices, right?" After I confirmed that I understood with a nod, he continued:

"So, spell matrices are created to be one of three types. They can be a Continuous matrix, that has a continuous effect, like levitation, but also uses up magic the whole time it's active. The second type is called a Single matrix, it has one effect and uses the exact amount of magic necessary to do said effect. It's the easiest of the three to master and if you learn to combine single matrices you can make a Multi matrix. The last type is one of the most powerful, but it takes longer than the others to cast. It's called the Word matrix. By channeling your magic through your words while saying something, similar to a prayer, you can reinforce a normal Single matrix to be at least ten times more powerful. The trick is that your 'prayer' has to be related to the original spell. For example if you were to try casting a fire spell, while praying to a goddess of water, the magic would cancel itself out. On the other hand if you were to do the same, but pray to a fire god, the power of the spell would increase dramatically."

'So, words have power. Literally.'

"But, be careful, because when you speak words layered with magic you can't lie, so the gods or whatever you are praying to, know that you are sincere with your prayers." And there goes one of the possibilities, I was an atheist in my previous life and even if I meet someone claiming to be a god in this one, I don't think I can just easily believe in them.

"Now, my plan is to first focus on Single matrices so you get a better feel of your magic. We will start as soon as you are ready, but first..." He suddenly opened a door that we arrived at, leading to a room, approximately 7 x 7 meters (23 x 23 feet) big, with a queen sized bed with velvet red sheets and bed curtains. In the leftmost corner of the room was a large wardrobe made from what looked like mahogany, complete with handles made of ebony. In the other corner on my left sat a large mahogany study desk with a ebony chair that had a scarlet pillow on top. On my right I could see another door and next to it was a mirror, probably a full body mirror for the ponies.

"... you need to get dressed into something better." Finished Zero, closing the door behind us.
> Chapter 10: Time skip 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been 2 months since the day I stepped into my new home and met Zero. That day, after I got dressed, we discussed my future plans and since I didn't have any he decided to educate me on magic and Equestrian history, or at least, what he knows of it.

After the first week I fell into a routine that went something like this: 

Every day I woke up at daybreak and went hunting, although it might be better to call it trap checking and setting. I had been trying to find some seeds to start a farm, but that was proving to be quite the endeavor, what with me struggling to tell apart the edible plants from the poisonous ones, even with Zero's help. The worst thing about hunting is the act of killing something. When I first caught a rabbit into a trap I was happy, but when it came to actually killing it, it took me an hour to come to terms with the fact that I will now have to take lives to prolong my own. Then after I finally managed to kill it I had to skin and clean it, oh joy.

On my first day of hunting I found out three interesting things. First, Zero Control can't leave the castle proper, meaning he can't go with me to tell me what I can and can't eat. Second, the explosion I accidentally caused annihilated the spider nest so they aren't a threat anymore. The last thing I found out was, that the forest surrounding the castle is no joke. On my first hunt I saw a manticore, it looked just like in the books on mythology, and Zero later confirmed I did, in fact, see right. After that I didn't dare go into the forest until I got hungry, which wasn't that long considering I barely ate anything in the 2 days before.

After the hunt I had breakfast, usually consisting of anything left over from the previous day. In case I accidentally ate all of the food, I dried some of the meat and stored it in the dungeons I discovered. Although I call them dungeons, the place was actually pretty clean, I couldn't even find any rats, it was just a bit dusty. It did have the iron cages and it was quite cold in it, but since I have no need for a prison at the moment I just put the dried meat into the cages.

After breakfast I had my magic control lesson, that had been mainly me, trying and failing to sense my 'inner ether', or the place where my body stores magic, also called a magic pool.

In one of these sessions I also managed to figure out how my magic sight works. Apparently I had been trying to do it wrong. Since magic for some reason doesn't flow into me naturally, it didn't come naturally, so Control had to explain it to me. I'm supposed to let magic from the outside in, not try to push it out as I have stupidly been doing, although I haven't been trying for nothing. Zero tells me, that I have the potential to use something called the Evil Eyes, since I could feel magic behind my eyes, but he didn't elaborate further. He says I first have to find my magic pool before I learn any actual magic. I foolishly thought I could find it easily using my magic eyes, so after he explained how I'm supposed to activate them, I immediately did so and just as fast lost consciousness.

When I woke up a day later, Zero explained to me, I couldn't just look at magic without letting my brain adapt, so I had to go through the long procedure of, closing my eyes and after activating magic sight, slowly opening them, having pauses before continuing my observations of magic, and boy is it weird. It's hard to explain with words how magic looks, it's like seeing sound. I guess you could say it has different frequencies and consequently colors. When I finally fully opened my eyes I was met with this plethora of different 'colors', ranging from blue to red and even black. I could still see everything around me, but I could also see this colorful mist. When I had looked at Zero, I could only see a dense cloud of gray color in his shape. I told him what I had seen, since it confirmed my theory that he was made out of magic. After I cut off the Sight I felt energized, I guessed it was all of the magic that entered my body.

About that, Zero had a theory as to why I don't just constantly receive magic from the environment. It would appear that since the body's soul changed that somehow influenced my magic pores effectively stopping magic from flowing into my body. He was still working out the details, but I thought it was a solid theory.

Continuing on, after my 'magic training', if you could call it that, I ate lunch and after that came the physical training. First I had to do a series of exercises, fallowed by a short run around the castle. I said short, but what I meant was, a long god damn run! Seriously, to run the circumference of the castle it took me an hour and 30 minutes! I knew I was short, but fuck!

Anyway, after the run I had weapons and martial arts training. Zero showed me how to move and corrected any mistakes I made. Then I had to fight against a suit of pony armor he possessed. I obviously lost. Multiple times, for every category, which were, sword, spear, bow and bare handed. I had been so happy when I first managed to land a hit, only to get hit into my belly with the blunt side of the spear, while I was celebrating and getting a lecture from Zero, about taking my eyes off my opponent.

After that painful and more often than not, humiliating display I got time to wash myself and change clothes from my training attire. Then I had to go to the library, where Zero prepared a lesson on the world of equuis, starting with history, going through it's geography and finishing at culture. He also gave me tests and quizzes to make sure I remembered everything properly. He was a strict but kind teacher, always watching if I was struggling with something so he could help me, but at the same time demanding I get at least 90 percent of the questions correct on a test.

And that is how two months passed. That day too, appeared normal.

Oh, how wrong I had been.
> Chapter 11: Twilight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up with the sun, like a princess should. I threw my blanket to the side and used my magic to open the curtains on my windows, only to get blinded for a second by Celestia's sun. After a while my eyes finally adjusted enough that I could see where I'm going. My room was made of crystal, just like the rest of my castle, and mainly had furniture made of mahogany. My study chair was also covered with velvet and my floor was covered by a dark violet carpet at Cadences suggestion.

After I finished admiring my room and wondering what I did to deserve it, I jumped out of my bed and trotted towards the nearest bathroom, where I took a shower, brushed my mane and tail and preened my wings. After I was done I just used my magic to dump the hair and feathers on the floor into a nearby trash can and then continued into one of the dinning rooms in my castle.

'I swear, this castle is way too big. A guest would get lost in just a few minutes. It's a good thing that Spike has a great sense of direction.' Those were my thoughts just as the previously mentioned dragon stepped out of the kitchen carrying a plate of freshly baked pancakes and a cup of black gold, aka. coffee.

"Good morning Twilight, how did you sleep?" Spike asked the same question he did every morning and like always I answered with: "Well enough Spike, now, can I get my cup of coffee?"

He smiled and nodded, placing the cup in front of me along with the plate of pancakes. I used my magic to lift the cup and chugged it, instantly feeling more awake. Then I battled the pancakes, they never stood a chance as I devoured them one by one. Spike, like always found my way of eating funny and couldn't help but giggle as ate. I just rolled my eyes and continued.

After eating breakfast I decided to continue my project, although it was harder now, since my main test subject ran away and probably died. It has already been two months since the subject ran away and I have yet to find a replacement. I had thought that the trait the subject exhibited was uncommon, but while I was testing I didn't even think of a possibility that it would be so rare.

As I was heading to the basement I was stopped by Spike asking a question: "Twilight, are you going to experiment on humans again?"

I knew Spike disliked experimentation on living beings, so I just answered with: "Don't worry Spike, I won't hurt them, I just need to see how magic reacts to them."

"I'm going to see Rarity, she told me she needed help training the new human." Said Spike while shaking his head in disapproval.

"Alright then, be back before dark, OK?" I answered, already thinking of all of the experiments I needed to finish today.

"Yes, yes." Answered Spike, already closing the door behind him.

I smiled and continued into the basement. The basement had several rooms, each meant for a different kind of experimentation. I entered the hallway and went into the first door on the left. I came into a house sized room, made completely out of magic resistant crystal. I went to the table on my left and picked up my notes from the day before. Then I turned towards the other side of the room, where you could see 12 humans chained to the walls, with enough space to get to the bowls of food and water but far enough apart, that they couldn't touch each other.

I walked to the right most human, it was a male with brown hair and a brown beard, exactly 26 years old if his ID was correct. I was starting to get excited, what will be the results? What will I find out?

Not being able to contain my excitement I hit the human with a magic bolt, that was supposed to clear his mind, and his head promptly exploded, spraying bits of his brains everywhere. 

'Damn it! It happens every time! How was She different from normal humans? Why would magic be fine with her but not every other human I tried this on?' My thoughts were once again turned towards my escaped test subject. There had to be something different about her that made her resistant to side effects that humans normally experience when hit with magic. I had to find out what it was!

And like that my experimentation continued until I ran out of humans. In the past month I had tried every single non lethal spell in the book, but no matter what, the result was always the same, the only thing different was which part of the body exploded. That appeared to be depending on the spell, if the spell had something to do with the head, the head would explode, if it was one of the other limbs they would explode. Because of that I could use one human to test multiple spells, but it didn't matter. I even tried adjusting how much magic I put into the spell but it didn't have any visible effect.

'I have to find Her, even just her body would tell me a lot, but it woul-'

I was broken out of my musings by Spike: "Hey Twilight, you OK down there? It's already past 9 pm!"

I looked towards the clock I decided to put on one of the walls, so I wouldn't lose track of time, although it didn't really help. It was indeed 9:25, so I cleaned the human corpses and the blood with a quick incineration spell and headed up the stairs.

Spike must have picked up on my bad mood, since he asked: "No luck today either, huh?"

"No, I don't understand! Why did she react so differently to magic?! I feel like it might be because she could see it, but I couldn't find out anything about seeing magic even in the royal archives! For all I know, she wasn't even human! Or maybe she had some kind of mutation! I just wish I could test a few more things on her, even if it was just her body." I answered, getting even more frustrated.

Spike hummed for a while and then he smiled and said: "How about the library in the old castle of the royal sisters?"

"Spike, you are a genius! Why didn't I think of that! Some of the books there are millennia old, there is bound to be a book that talks about seeing magic! Alright, it's already late, so we will go there tomorrow!"
> Chapter 12: Losing and breaking
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had just finished with my morning hunt and was heading home, when I felt my eyes tingle like they if I stepped into a high density magic zone.

A high density magic zone or HMZ, from what Zero told me, is a place where either, a really powerful magic was used or a being with massive amounts of magic is currently there. In some very rare cases it can also exist in places where enough creatures with magic died.

Until now I had only ever encountered a HMZ when I accidentally stumbled upon an Ursa Majors lair. Luckily for me, it didn't regard me as a threat and allowed me to leave. At that time too, my eyes tingled, like if you were to spray them with tiny droplets of water, since magic was trying to flow through them, but couldn't.

For that very reason I was immensely confused when I felt that tingle. 'Is the Ursa moving, or something?' was my first thought, but was quickly thrown aside when I realized how close to the castle, my new home, I was.



I didn't know why, but I could feel fear grip my heart, so I decided to hurry home, to check on Control and my things. But as I was getting closer and closer to the castle and could feel the HMZ steadily getting more powerful to the point where my eyes stung, I started going faster and faster, when I was at the entrance to the tunnel I was already in a full on sprint, using what knowledge of magic I had gotten from Zero to reinforce my body and make me faster.

When I got to the courtyard I was met with a scene from my nightmares.

There, at the entrance to the castle insides stood the purple alicorn, as Zero called them, together with a green lizard like thing. At that point I was afraid, my memories of how this Twilight was chasing me once more fresh in my head. I was frozen stiff with fear as I watched her brightly glowing horn.

But then I saw him. Zero, caught in a purple bubble, with Twilight bouncing on her hooves around it. He too noticed me and mouthed to me 'get it, run'.

I knew what he meant since we had made a plan for a scenario like this, but I wasn't prepared. The plan was so simple, I would just have to sneak past twilight and the lizard, get to the library, get the book that Zero wrote for me to learn from, so I wouldn't have to read the whole library, and then, I would just have to run away, leaving Zero here.

When we made the plan, I agreed to it, but now, that I would have to actually do it, I wasn't sure I could leave him here. But there was nothing I could do, I had no choice.

So I used the side door while neither of the trespassers were looking and was off, sprinting to the library. When I got there I quickly grabbed the book that was at the designated spot and ran back. Being careful I slowly peeked through the side door I ran through.

I barely managed to stop myself from sobbing by holding my mouth shut. Zero was still in the bubble, but several things were different, for one, the alicorn had stopped hopping around and had a creepy, almost sadistic look on her face, Zero on the other hand had a horrified look on his face, while at the same time looking at the stump where his hand used to be and said hand glowing in a purple aura and floating outside the bubble.

Not a moment after I saw that scene, the screaming started. I could hardly tell it was Zero, with how horrible it sounded. I just couldn't stick to the plan anymore, so I ran into the courtyard and screamed at the top of my lungs: "MY NAME IS &#)&*!"

My cry was just barely louder than Zero's screaming, and the moment Twilight and the lizard heard my name they fell to the ground holding their ears. Consequentially, Twilight lost her hold on Zero, who quickly picked up his missing hand, reattaching it to his body. Then he ran to me and hugged me, me hugging him back with all my strength.

After our hug we ran back into the castle, since Zero couldn't leave it. We ran down corridor after corridor, hopping to lose the alicorn and lizard who wanted to catch us. Then, to my horror, a wall of purple energy I knew far too well passed by us, followed by a popping sound as Twilight appeared in front of us.

She grinned maniacally and said: "Could you please tell me what you just did? I would love to learn!" The question was obviously directed at me but the way she accentuated some of the words made me think, she didn't really want to hear the answer as much as she wanted to experiment on me until she figured it out herself.

In my panic driven mind I turned 180 degrees, intending to run away, only to see Zero quickly pass through me, followed by an explosion. I slowly turned around, looking at Zero's back, that appeared more solid than usual.

"Z-Zero, a-a-are you ok?" I shakily asked and stretched my hand to his shoulder. Only for his form to collapse into dust the moment I touched him.

'What... What just... what happened? Why did Zero turn to dust?! Why did this happen?! Why? Why?? Why?! WHY?! WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY?!?' I couldn't help it, I burst into laughter while I cried at the same time.

There, for just a second Twilight's face lost that infuriating grin, and in that moment it contorted into a frightened expression, before reverting back.

My eyes glowed a sickly green, I know I have seen them do it, as I used magic outside my body for the first time, taking the very molecules that made up her horn and ripping them apart all at once. I watched as her horn disintegrated at a molecular level, listening to her screaming as the nerves in it just stopped existing, before tearing open a hole in space-time and jumping through.

The moment I reached the other side I let sleep take me from this cruel reality.

That day, something important in me broke.
> Chapter 13: Twilights return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A minute after Twilight teleported, I could hear her screaming so I ran towards the sound, I had to help Twilight if she was in trouble. It only took me a few minutes of running, but when I arrived I started wishing I got there before she started screaming.

Twilight was laying on the floor, holding her head, tears streaming out her eyes as they tried focusing on the only thing missing. Her horn. I just couldn't believe it. Twilight, one of the four alicorns, that was originally a unicorn was now just a stronger pegasus.

I just couldn't understand. 'How did this happen?! There aren't even any signs of her horn being cut off, it's like it just disintegrated!'

It took me a few minutes, but I got myself together, moved to Twilight and started comforting her. I knew she got a bit crazy with her experiments sometimes, but losing her horn just for that was too much. For her to warrant such a punishment she would have to do something truly bad. 

So I gently asked her, trying to sound calm even though I wasn't: "Twilight, what did you do to the ghost and the human?"

She looked at me through the tears in her eyes and said: "I didn't do anything to them, I was just trying to get them to come with me, but the human turned her back on me, so I shot a tranquilizer shot at her. But the ghost went and blocked it and then the human got angry and did something to my horn!"

She then started bawling her eyes out again and it took me at least half an hour to calm her down again. Afterwards I helped her stand and we headed home through the Everfree. But since Twilight couldn't use her magic to keep the Everfree beasts at bay, we decided to first head to Zecora to get something to repel them instead.

It took as a good part of an hour to reach Zecora's hut since Twilight was still in pain due to losing her horn and thus couldn't walk particularly fast.

Leaving Twilight to lean on the wall I stepped up to the door and knocked. Soon after Zecora opened the door and welcomed us in. We stepped into the living room, that was like always filled with tribal masks on the walls and books on herbalism on the singular table. There was also a cauldron in the corner, but it appeared empty. 

When Zecora saw Twilight without her horn, I could see her eyes widen, before she bolted to another room in her house, soon returning with a red, borderline violet drink.

"It will help, this potion of pink, but the whole thing you will have to drink." Said Zecora with concern in her voice, like she wasn't sure if she should let Twilight drink the potion.

"What is so bad about having to drink the whole potion? It looks like there isn't even a deciliter in the bottle." I asked, confusion apparent in my voice.

"The potion does not simply taste bad, it is so horrible to the point it drives ponies mad!" She answered with actual worry in her voice now.

"What will happen if she doesn't drink the whole potion and what should we expect if she does?" I again asked, this time with drops of anger mixing into my voice.

"If the whole potion she will drink not, then her magic circuits too will rot. But if she manages to, her horn grow will back same as it was through and through." Said Zecora with a glint in her eyes.

"I'll do it!" Immediately exclaimed Twilight, not even waiting for a response, before she took the potion with her wings and downed the whole thing.

"Wait, stop!" Cried out the zebra, but it was too late.

Twilight fell to the ground, screaming her head off as her horn slowly started pushing it's way out of her skull. Unable to pass out due to side effects of the potion that Zecora wanted to warn her about, Twilight suffered 5 excruciating hours of unbearable pain, before finally the potion allowed her to pass out.

I just couldn't bear to see the pony who hatched my egg looking like that, so I left the room as soon as she passed out. Then I remembered how growing back her horn looked and promptly emptied the contents of my stomach in Zecora's toilet. I never wanted to witness something like that ever again.

While Twilight was passed out Zecora made us a soup, since it was way past dinner time and emptying my stomach really didn't help with my hunger. While eating I asked the zebra something that had been bothering me since she told us the potion could regrow Twilight's horn.

"Hey, Zecora? How come that you don't use that potion you gave Twilight for all of the unicorns that lost their horns?" It was a valid question, one that I required an answer to, especially since I wanted to help ponies. I had always wanted to become a doctor and for that reason I have read a lot of medical books in my free time. But for some reason there was never a mention of a potion that could give a unicorn their horn back.

"Listen Spike, a unicorn and alicorn are nothing alike. If Twilight were a unicorn, her whole magic system would burn. For that reason the potion is for alicorn use only, unless you want to kill a pony." Answered Zecora with a scary calmmnes in her voice.

"I see, then what-" I was rudely interrupted while asking my question, by Twilight who apparently had just woken up.

"Ugh, what happened? I remember drinking the potion, it tasted horrible by the way, then I blacked out. Did it work?" Said Twilight, only now noticing the pain on her forehead was gone, so neared her hoof to her horn before touching it.

Her eyes widened, before she started jumping for joy. Then, just as suddenly as she started she stopped and got a dark look on her face.

Then, just barely within my hearing range she murmured: "I am going to get you for what you did and I am going to enjoy every last second of our next confrontation."

And then, she laughed.
> Chapter 14: Lost, but not alone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was awake, but couldn't move. I couldn't see anything and I felt like my brain was processing things much slower than it should have. I tried thinking hard about what was happening, but all that got me was a migraine. So for some time I just existed, not being able to feel anything around me, or move my body.

After a time, I finally started to feel my body and all I was greeted with was pain. Lots and lots of pain. My whole body was aching, but it was worse for my hands. Every nerve there was screaming at me to do something, so I did the only thing that I could do at that moment. Scream.

At first I tried to trash around, but it only brought me more pain, so I gave up on the idea. I don't know how long I was in that state, just screaming, being unable to do anything else.

Thankfully I was saved from that torture, as the nerves in my body, after far too long for my tastes, became numb to that level of pain. Relieved I didn't even get a chance to look around, before I fell asleep.





I woke up again, but this time I could feel my body and could see light through my closed eyes. My mind still felt much too slow, but I just couldn't think of an explanation for it.

I opened my eyes, but quickly closed them again, as they were assaulted with the light of the sun. Slowly I opened them again, this time making sure to let them adjust to the brightness. From the trees at the edges of my vision I slowly came to the conclusion I was still in a forest.

I tried sitting up, but felt like my belly muscles are trying to lift a house, so I just gave up on that idea. Although my processing speed was still low, thinking about things didn't give me a migraine, so I opt for thinking about what happened before I woke up here.

My muddled mind sluggishly went over the events leading to me being here in this state. After a few hours, judging by the change in lighting, I finally came to Zero's death. It took me far into the night to stop crying, one of the few things I could do at that moment, and move on to my next memory, which consisted of me using magic.

I was genuinely surprised as I remembered using magic, the way it flowed and turned, the way I moved it so it did what I wanted. As I recalled how it felt, a sudden burning sensation in my belly forced me to exhale sharply.

It took me far too long to remember Zero's lessons and recognize signs of magic exhaustion. As I came to the realization, that I wasn't just tired from everything that had happened, I opened myself to magic, like I was taught and not even seconds later my mind was completely clear and the troubles I had with moving my body were gone.

I didn't understand why I had trouble moving when I was without magic, since all of the other humans could do so just fine, but decided against experimenting before I found a safe place to stay at.

Trying to pull my upper body into a sitting position I put my hands on the ground to push myself up, only for me to just barely hold in a scream of pain. I brought my hands in front of my face and took a good look at them. To say they were in bad shape would be an understatement. My hands were bloated like balloons, looking like they were severely burned.

'What the- ? I don't remember getting burned in my fight with twilight tho! What happened while I was asleep?' I could only guess the reasons for the condition my hands were in.

Now that I was aware of the damage done to my hands, I started registering the pain and knew that I wouldn't be able to use them for quite a while if I didn't do something about it.

I slowly shifted my legs so they were positioned under me and then carefully stood up without the help of my hands. Now that I was standing I could finally take a good at my surroundings. As I thought previously I was in a forest, specifically a small clearing filled with bright blue flowers. And I was in the middle of them.

I didn't know what kind of flowers they were, but there were no other plants in the clearing other than them. There was also the fact I was still alive after being knocked out for at least one day, which would mean that all of the plants and animals are either afraid of the plants or they are avoiding something else that is in this clearing.

The plants seemed harmless enough even with the glowing blue color, but I have been wrong before, so I looked more carefully at everything in the clearing. Afterwards I came to the conclusion, that I was wrong, the plants were probably either extremely poisonous or they somehow repelled every living thing in the forest, which I found impossible, even in a world with magic.

'Okay, since I am in the middle of the flowers there are two options. I am either going to die in the near future, or I am immune to the poison the plants produce, in which case this place would be a perfect place to build a home. Welp, nothing I can do but wait and see what happens. Then again I have been sleeping in this place for a whole day, so it's either a slow working poison or I truly am immune. In any case I need to find something to eat, otherwise it won't matter if I am immune or not.' And with those thoughts I slowly walked out of the clearing and into the forest in search of any of my usual trails, hoping I wasn't far away.





After Fairy left a nearby bush suddenly parted and out stepped a panther with slick black fur and glowing green eyes. It sniffed the air a few times and then jumped across the blue plants in one giant leap. It then continued to run in the direction Fairy went towards, at speeds more akin to a cheetah.

It practically zoomed past the trees blocking it's path and in a matter of seconds it had caught up with it's target. It carefully observed the movements of it's target until it found an opportunity when the target leaned down to get to some berries it had just found.

That is when the panthers well toned muscles sprung into action, sending it soaring at the target like a bullet. The target didn't even notice until it was too late and the panther broke their neck.
> Chapter 15: The panther
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I kept walking through the thick underbrush of the forest, with the hope I would find an unassuming animal I could kill and eat, or maybe one of my numerous traps I set around the forest.

I could hear leaves rustle, but at the moment just dismissed it as wind and wasn't about to stop and check if my assumption was right. Instead my hunger dragged me on, to at least find something edible before night, when I would have to climb a tree to escape becoming dinner to any of the multitude of predators.

Even though I was ignoring it, somewhere in the back of my mind, that wasn't as focused on finding food, I could tell the rustling didn't make sense. It came and went, but always followed me, like a predator stalking it's prey without ever attacking it. The problem was, that in this case, I was the prey. Yet I continued desperately searching for food, as my hunger grew.

When I started my search it was just a mild pang, like when you didn't eat enough for lunch and are really hungry for dinner. But the longer I walked the more starved I felt. As I came to my third hour of walking, my legs suddenly gave out under me and I collapsed to the ground. With the help of a tree I pulled myself into a sitting position, but with little to no energy left. Only then did I realize that I had sealed my own fate.

When I used the spell in the castle I didn't just burn through my magic reserves, but also through most of the energy in my body. Without food to act as fuel, I had just been using up all of my remaining energy walking through the forest and now I didn't have enough energy to even try to hunt down anything.

'There is no way I can move more than a few feet without using up everything I have left, effectively killing myself. The other option is to just sit here and hope I somehow regain some energy, but for that to happ-' I was broken from my assessment of the situation by a low growl.

I slowly turned my head in the direction of  the growl, as to expend as little energy as possible, and what came into my vision certainly wasn't a welcome view.

'Ah, this is how I die, hm? Well, it could be worse. At least the thing to kill me is such a beautiful black panther. It is as high as me when I am standing and It's coat is practically shimmering in the setting sun. It's eyes are green like a meadow on a summer day, yet cold and uncaring as the winter snow. Hopefully such a majestic beast will grant me a quick death.' As I thought that, I finally noticed it was carrying a whole deer and I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it.

The panther stalked closer as I laughed and as it came within the range of my arms, I instinctively stiffened preparing for it to strike and break my neck in one strike. Then it did something that almost made me think I was already dead, although another hunger pang obliterated that thought, the panther dropped the deer to the ground and used it's snout to push it towards me.

I was so utterly confused I just stared at the deer for a few minutes, then turned my gaze towards the panther and did the same. During that time the panther started skinning it's catch, finished and cut off a large slab of meat, that it then dropped into my lap.

After my bout of confusion ended I looked towards the bloody, uncooked slab of meat and there was one thing that popped into my mind: disease.

When I was young, my mother had once told me to never eat raw meat, since it could carry parasites, viruses or bacteria that I am not immune to. Because of that I had never eaten anything raw, but on the other hand, I would die for certain if I didn't eat this. I looked at the meat in my lap and suddenly felt revolted. I didn't like how it looked, I didn't like how it smelled and I definitely didn't like how it felt in my hands as I picked it up. Yet I didn't have a choice.

So I brought it to my mouth and bit into it, and immediately felt like vomiting. The taste itself wasn't bad, in fact it was pretty good, perfectly salted because of all the blood, but the thought of eating raw meat, not even dried was just so revolting. But I still forced more into my mouth and after a few more bites I didn't feel like puking anymore.

After I ate the whole thing, the panther dropped some more meat into my lap and I gladly ate it. Soon my belly was full and I had recuperated a bit, while the panther ate it's share of the deer, leaving only around a quarter of the meat, the bones and the hide.

And then I knew it was time, to find out why the panther even helped me. So ridiculous as it may sound, I asked it: "So, now that you saved me from certain death, what is it you want in return?"

It turned it's head and looked me in the eyes. We stayed in that position for what felt like an eternity, before the panther broke it's gaze and motioned with it's head for me to follow it, before heading off into the bushes and disappearing. I used the tree at my back to push myself up, as my hands were still out of commission, and stood on shaky legs, before slowly moving towards the place, where the panther vanished.

As I slowly walked, the panther came back, and tried to hurry me along by pushing my legs, almost making me fall down and certainly not speeding me up. It then changed it's tactic and deciding that it's way will be faster the panther tripped me with it's back legs, making me fall forward onto it's back, before it took off running.
> Chapter 16: The tree
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had been riding on the panther for at least an hour and it didn't look like we were going to stop any time soon. While siting on the panthers back I noticed we were actually heading further into the forest, in fact, we had already passed the depth of the old castle, judging by the minuscule amount of light that got through the thick foliage.

Even though I didn't want to go this deep into the forest the panther didn't give me a choice in the matter, as a fall at the speed we were going was bound to break at least a few bones, leaving me unable to properly defend myself from the dangers that lurk around the shadows of the trees. All I could do at that moment was trust that the panther new what he was doing and hope for the best.





An unknown amount of time had passed and we finally stopped. The first reason I didn't know how much time had passed was, that I couldn't really rely on my sense of time, considering it wasn't working as it should, highly likely due to me passing out. The second reason was, that not long after the initial hour of riding, the forest was shrouded in almost complete darkness and the only way I could actually see my surroundings was to use magic sight, so no judging the time with the sun.

Since I tried to use magic sight sparingly I only used it once during the ride, when something big roared too close for my comfort and I wanted to be sure, that we weren't going to be attacked. Now that we had finally arrived I once again used magic sight and almost fainted from the amount of magic something in front of me was radiating.

The panther put me on the ground, where I then just sat for a few minutes with closed eyes, taking deep breaths. After finally gaining enough courage to open my eyes again I made the right choice of shutting off magic sight. I could now see millions of fireflies gathered in groups, slowly lighting up the clearing the panther brought me to. I carefully looked around trying to spot the one who had that absurd amount of magic, before my eyes fell on a tree in the middle of the clearing.

It looked completely different from the trees that surrounded the glade, while those ones had crooked trunks with many tumors and long twisting branches with something between a dark brown and sickly black coloration, the one in front of me was a beautiful light brown tree. It looked thousands of years old but was healthier and higher than the other trees. It's trunk was to thick that even 5 grown up humans wouldn't be able to hug it. It's branches made beautiful patterns as they covered the whole clearing and beyond, it's crown alone the cause of the complete darkness before the fireflies lit everything up. That tree was truly the mightiest in the forest.

As I stared at that behemoth of a tree I suddenly heard a voice, that was like a whisper yet still carried through the forest, like all of the trees in it were repeating it: "Come closer child." I was immediately put on guard with the child comment. Then I remembered that I was in a body of a child, yet I still didn't throw away the option that the one who said that thought of him or herself, couldn't really tell from the voice, as superior, thus calling everyone else children. The theory was supported by the fact that the person who spoke, hadn't come out, thus never specifying where I should go.

It only took about 30 seconds for the voice to again reverberate through the forest: "Come on child, I won't hurt you."

Just that told me two things. The being, whatever it was, was highly impatient and very likely to hurt me if angered. When it spoke I turned on magic sight and tried with all my might to ignore the insane amounts of magic the tree was putting out. I could just barely make out the magic in every sound and coming from the tree, then I started to feel dizzy, meaning I was probably absorbing too much magic, so I decided to release some in the same way the tree was doing.

I answered: "Why should I come closer when I can't even see you?" I started feeling a burning sensation on my tongue, as I poured magic into my words, but ignored it for the moment as it wasn't terribly painful.

The tree seemed put off by my opposition to it's request. Then it started laughing. It took a while, but finally it calmed down, and a humanoid shape pealed off the tree and started walking towards me. Soon I could clearly see the person in front of me.

She, judging by her bosom, looked like she was made out of wood with several kinds of leaves in place for her hair with the occasional flower among them. Covering her back and hips were woven grass clothes that left her front exposed. Her privates were just barely hidden from sight by a thick layer of moss. I forced myself to look away from her exposed thighs and towards her face. Her eyes were, in complete contrast to the rest of her, a bright violet. She wore a necklace with a leaf shaped green material at the end.

It took me a bit to remember what mythological creature she looked like, but I finally recalled. A dryad. A being known for seducing men into giving it their life energy through sex.

If I wasn't entirely on guard before I was in full panic mode now. Judging by the amount of magical energy I saw before, she could easily overpower me and I could hardly do anything about it. There were two ways of me getting out of the situation. Either I try talking to her and hope she won't take me as prey since I am now female, or I run and hope that the rule of a dryad not being able to go too far from it's tree is true.

I decided with the one that was less likely to get me killed, but the moment I turned around to run I was stopped with a tall wall made from wood. I slowly looked at the dryad behind me and she just smiled at me. I fully turned towards her and put myself in a battle ready stance, like Zero thought me. Then I asked: "What do you want?"

Her smile widened and she answered: "I want... you."
> Chapter 17: A dryad's hate
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I want you."

As soon as the dryad said those words I tried to lunge at her, seeing fighting as my only option. Emphasis on tried, as I didn't make it even a step, before vines and roots curled around my legs, making me trip and then pinned me to the ground.

"Now, now, there's no need for violence, although it probably would have helped if I didn't word things weirdly." The dryad said at first with a smile of amusement and then a contemplative gaze.

She continued, her eyes once more focusing on me: "Well, no matter. You are here now and I will only allow you to live under one condition."

I was afraid of what was coming, but just to be sure I asked: "And what might that condition be?"

She smiled brightly, like I had made her day and with a happy go lucky attitude answered: "Why, to show those damn ponies that nature is not to be fucked with, of course."

It took me a while to comprehend what she had just said and after I sorted through the information, I couldn't help but yell at her: "Well, couldn't you have just said that in the first place!? I would have easily agreed and that would be it!"

She looked at me in surprise and then just started laughing.

"Well, of course I could have, silly, but where would be the fun in that? I found this way much more amusing." Somehow her laughter was still echoing through the forest as she spoke. This being was powerful enough to make an entire forest echo on a whim. And it terrified me, so I decided that it would be a good idea to shut up and just let her speak.

"Anyhow, now that I know that you are on board, I first have to tell you my story." And tell me she did. The story itself wasn't long, what was long was how she cursed the ponies in more and more innovative ways, every time she could.
It went something like this, without the unnecessary stops to curse of course:

The dryad was born when the forest consisted of only about 30 trees. She didn't yet understand her existence but other dryads from other forests helped her. She learnt a lot from them, how to talk, attract animals to her forest and prevent tree diseases from spreading. It was a wonderful time, when the dryads could walk outside their forests by spreading the roots of their trees along a set path.

And then, a few millennia later, the ponies came. With them they brought a horrible winter, that killed a lot of animals and even more trees, that weren't prepared for the sudden snow and thus broke under the weight. And all the dryad could do was watch as her forest slowly started dying, the frozen ground preventing the growth of any plants. All sources of water froze over and thus the number of animals plummeted. The trees that didn't die from the initial snow were frozen under a deep layer of ice and some of the animals that had burrowed under the ground for shelter were now starving to death as they couldn't get through the frozen soil and the mass of snow on top. For 4 days the forest was in disarray and on the fifth day, the dryad wept. The whole forest was completely silent as their protector cried and wailed, unable to do anything to save what she spent thousands of years creating.

But then, when almost all hope was lost, the sun's rays tore through the thick clouds and started melting the snow. The dryad was overjoyed and helped thaw the snow with her magic, something that had previously failed. With the dryads magic it took no more than a day to melt all of the snow in the forest allowing the animals to drink again and a day after that she used her magic to speed up the growth of the plants, so the next day the animals could eat. In a week the damage, while still visible, was mostly nullified. The dryad was happy to see her forest prospering again and was thankful to whomever it was, that stopped the sudden winter.

After a few months she got bored of just overseeing her forest day and night and started making a root path to get to one of her friends. But the roots would stop at one point and no matter how much she asked them, they wouldn't move. When she asked the trees they told her, that the magic there is forbidding them from going through. The dryad was reasonably confused, as there shouldn't be anything between hers and her friend's forest. So she went to see, what was preventing her from making a root path. And what she found made her even more confused.

Multiple houses stood there, right in the middle of the clearing between their forests. And a bit away form the houses stood multiple apple trees in neat rows. She tried asking them if they could extend their roots to her, but they ignored her, so she had to leave. Back in her forest she made a pond and cast a spell that would allow her to see anywhere she had already been. Looking through her friends forest it was in a similar condition to her forest and she could see her friend helping animals and talking to trees. Everything was fine.

And in that way a hundred years passed. The houses evolved into a proper village and the amount of apple trees increased exponentially. The dryads forest too had gotten bigger, but was still smaller than most of the others. She tried to get to other forests too, but every time the roots tried going more than 100 meters out of the forest they would stop and wouldn't go forward even if there was no village in the way. It baffled the dryad, but she was patient. Sooner or latter things would return to how they always were.

Then her forest got visitors. A pair of ponies, bigger than what she had seen before, entered the dryads forest and started to look around. When they came to her favorite lunging spot, with a ravine on one side and a river on the other they stopped and used their wings to fly down into the ravine and into the cave the dryad had made for one of her boredom projects. How they knew it was even there she didn't know, but what they did there scared her. They took the fruits of a tree she made, that would allow her, to store power and then pull on it when she needed to. The idea came to her soon after the surprise winter. The problem was that the stored power was in the fruits and since the two ponies just took them, she wouldn't be able to draw on their power.

And that is when things started going wrong. The first thing that happened was, that black pellet like seeds rained down from the sky all around her forest and she had to use a considerable amount of magic to prevent them from sprouting right away, like some kind of parasite. Then, because she used so much magic she wasn't able to prevent the two bigger ponies from building a castle on her favorite spot. After them came other ponies and suddenly there was a town in her forest and she couldn't do anything about it, as she had to keep using a lot of magic to stop the black seeds.

Then years later the two ponies fought and the white one banished the black one to the moon. That gave the dryad the opportunity to take back some of the energy from the fruits of her tree, with which she then tried to destroy the town and castle in her forest, since at that point she had enough of them. She created wooden wolves and dangerous, but beautiful flowers, that would harass the ponies. The now lone bigger pony and the other normal sized ones escaped from the forest, but left the fruits there. But the fruits were locked in some kind of shell that the dryad didn't have the energy to break.

And so passed 1000 years in which the dryad had to use up more and more energy to prevent the black seeds from sprouting. She almost didn't notice when the black bigger pony came back, the only reason she did, was because she got a temporary magic boost when her fruits were used. then another two years went by and she lost control. The black seeds sprouted and took over her forest and there was nothing she could do. Then the ponies came again and returned the fruits to the tree. With the boost in power she destroyed the black seeds, but some of the power of her fruits had rubbed of on the ponies since they were able to use the same connection to them as her. She has been trying to remove the connection, but has been unsuccessful.

Anyway, as soon as she could she checked on her friends and what she found is the main reason for her hate of the ponies. Apparently the ponies lacked a resource called wood and decided to use the many forests around as sources of said resource. After a few hundred years of doing so most of the dryads couldn't handle the stress of parts of their forest being slowly cut of and decided to fuse with the tree, that they had been born from, effectively abandoning the forest to the ponies and killing themselves.

The dryad was enraged, but couldn't do anything. So she waited for her opportunity.

It was a sad story, that made me hate the ponies even more. I understood it was unreasonable to hate the ponies for cutting down trees that they needed, but it certainly wasn't unreasonable to hate them for meddling in things they obviously didn't understand, like those fruits. Even worse was the fact that a lot of the animals from the dryads forest had been influenced by the ponies magic, while she was occupied, and can't live by themselves.

I was positively fuming. I wanted to punch someone so badly, but I was still pinned to the ground. The dryad smiled at me, like she had been doing the whole time while telling me her story.

"Now then, dear, I have a question for you." She said.

I looked at her, still trying to calm myself down, and asked: "What?!"

"Are you willing to learn from me, and exact my revenge on the ponies? I can help you get your magic under better control. I can teach you other kinds of magic, with my help you could bring the sun down if you wanted! So, what do you say?"

It was a temping offer. She would be able to tell me a lot of things that Zero couldn't. Yet I wasn't sure if I was prepared to trust something powerful enough to promise me what she did. Then again, our goals were pretty close together, I just had an additional one, that I could do after I exacted our revenge.

"Well, it's a tempting offer, I'm going to have to say -"
> Chapter 18: Battle between gods
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"... no, thank you." I finished.

"Well, of course you would agree, after all, who would- " The dryad who was pacing stopped and focused her eyes on mine.

"What did you just say? Did you, a filthy animal just disagree with me?! The most powerful being on the planet?! The one who has the power to destroy the Sun?!" She was absolutely livid, as I thought. She was just trying to manipulate me to do as she said.

"Yes, I disagree with you. Personally I would rather not work with someone who sees me as an animal, that just needs sweet words to be persuaded." While I talked I was putting the finishing touches of my escape plan together.

But as they always say, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Except in this case, there was no contact, just a sudden blinding flash, followed moments later by a shockwave and a thundering boom. I probably lost consciousness for a few seconds and when I finally managed to blink the spots out of my eyes I noticed I was lying on the far side of the clearing, some 20 meters from where I was pinned by the dryads roots.

Looking towards the spot, where the dryad previously stood, all I could see was a dark green globe, that stood in the middle of a crater, at least 2 meters deep. The dome disappeared in a shower of green sparks, revealing the dryad, her face contorted inhumanely in her fury. She started yelling something towards the sky, but my ears were still ringing from the deafening explosion, so I couldn't hear anything. I wanted to move, but my body just wouldn't obey me, either from the physical trauma of accelerating from zero to a hundred, or because I broke my spine when my body hit whatever prevented me from being blown further back. 

As such all I could do, was observe as the dryad finished yelling and just stood there. That gave me the idea of using my magic sight. When I turned it on, I felt like puking my guts out as I looked at the monstrous amounts of magic the dryad was pulling from every plant around her. I tried to stop using it, but the amounts of magic going through my eyes stopped me from doing so, I wasn't even able to close my eyes.

Just when the pressure rose from physically painful to, oh my god I want to gauge my eyes out, make it stop, the dryad released all of that magic through her hands in a smooth beam of pure magic, only a few centimeters tick. But through my eyes I could see, that the magic in the beam was so tightly packed together, that I wouldn't be surprised if it collapsed into a black hole. The beam lasted only for a second, but whatever she was aiming for, was bound to have a gaping hole wherever she hit it.

At that point my body had finally decided that being able to move might be a good idea. But then it decided that it should probably activate my nervous system first, and I was genuinely surprised when I didn't immediately start screaming in pain. At the least I knew that one of my arms was broken, my other shoulder was dislocated, at least one of my ribs was broken and poking at my lungs, since it hurt whenever I inhaled too deeply, and one of ankles was either sprained or strained.

I felt like fainting was a good option, but as I closed my eyes I noticed flashes of light accompanied by muted sounds of explosions, that were the first sign of my hearing coming back. I fought through the pain to stay conscious, tilted my head just slightly upwards, and was pleasantly surprised when no new pain came, and strenuously opened my eyes to an incredible sight.

About 100 to 200 meters above ground, were three creatures, two, I believe Zero called them alicorns, and the dryad in a fight that truly displayed their superiority to any normal being. The white alicorn shone like the sun and wielded a giant gold one handed axe in it's magic, swinging at the dryad with enough power to blow away the clouds for miles. The dark blue alicorn looked like it was sucking in the light around it, producing a black spot in the sky, and held 5 black claymores in her magic, using them like remote controlled arrows that flew from one end of the celestial battlefield to another in an instant, always covering for the white alicorn if she overextended.

And then there was the dryad. She levitated in the air and didn't move an inch, yet none of the attacks from the two alicorns ever hit her. Then came the counterattack, she rose her hands so the each pointed at one of the alicorns and in an instant sent two devastating beams of pure magic flying towards them. The alicorns barely had time to get out of the way of the beam, when it imploded and then exploded with enough force that I, sitting on the ground, felt it.

Yet the alicorns seemed no worse for ware, than before the death beam and just continued their deadly dance. After all, sooner or later, the dryad will run out of magic and whatever she is using to protect herself will probably fail soon after. 

'Did I seriously think about revenge just minutes before? This is completely impossible! Fuck it, I am giving up on revenge if I get out of here alive. There is simply no fucking way, that I can even come close to that. I mean, the blue one is casting a spell, that would probably kill me the moment I tried to use it!' I thought, as the blue alicorn used magic to shot thunder bolts at the dryad through the swords.

'I have to get out of here and hide! But in this forest I will surely die with my wounds. I have to think of something!'

And so, I was desperately thinking of a solution to my problem as a battle between gods raged in the sky above me.
> Chapter 19: Battle between gods part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

While I was desperately thinking of a way to turn this situation in my favor, a fierce battle raged in the sky above me, as beams of magic were shot left and right from the dryads hands and earth splitting blows were delivered by the alicorns' weapons.

Then, only minutes after the start of the battle, something changed. The dryad had started dodging the alicorns' attacks and her beams were much thinner. Those were fairly obvious, but another indicator of what was going on were the plants around me, that were slowly wilting, the longer the fight went on. The dryad was obviously running out of magic and was taking it from the plants of her forest.

It wasn't long after that, that the dryad got hit by the white alicorns axe. The hit sent her flying for a few dozen meters, before she forcefully stopped herself. For a second time stopped as I gazed at her expression of fury, before she disappeared and reappeared next to the white alicorn, delivering a vicious dropkick to it's head. The alicorn was shot towards the ground at the speed that would surely kill me three times over, but with only a single flap of it's wings it not only stopped, seemingly completely unfazed, but also propelled itself upwards towards the dryad at an even higher velocity.

The dryad for her part didn't get a chance to be surprised at the impossible feat the white alicorn achieved, as she was locked in a hand to hand with the blue alicorn, who, in an astonishing display of hand to hand combat and magic, was steadily landing hits on the vital areas of a humanoid body, that the dryad possessed.

Her concentration on the fight proved to be a mistake, as the white alicorn teleported into her blind spot and, if not for her astounding reflexes, would have beheaded her. Instead she lost an arm.

If it wasn't obvious before, that the dryad would lose, it certainly was now. Apparently she realized that too, as she started descending while trying to keep both alicorns at bay. Even to my amateurish eyes it was obvious she was trying to get closer to her source of power, the plants and animals of the forest. The alicorns knew it to, as their attack became faster and more unpredictable, until the dryad made a mistake.

Using her downwards momentum, she dodged a spinning kick from the blue alicorn, then blocked another beam of magic from her left with a compact magic shield while at the same time blocking the white alicorns axe with her remaining arm coated in magic. Then, suddenly the white alicorn disappeared. It's horn wasn't glowing to indicate a teleportation spell and there was also no shower of sparks. The only thing left of the alicorn was it's giant one handed axe.

As an outside observer I of course noted that the blue alicorns horn was glowing, and my suspicions of an illusion were confirmed, as the white alicorn popped out from thin air behind the dryad and sent her flying with a punch it put it's full body into.

The dryad flew parallel to the ground, in my general direction, her body twisting and turning in the air, until I could just barely see her in the upper peripherals of my vision from the angle I was looking at. At that point the blue alicorn appeared above her and sent her shooting at the ground with a perfectly timed and vicious axe kick.

At that point a stunning realization came to me. The dryad was shooting towards the ground at speeds that would make rockets jealous and I was fairly certain that she was more or less above me when the axe kick was delivered. In conclusion, the next few moments would hurt. A lot.

Not even a moment after the dryad hit the ground about a meter in front of me, did the shock wave hit me, sending me flying.





'All I see is darkness. Is this death? It feels so peaceful I could jus-' At that moment the nerves in my body decided to inform me, that I am in fact not dead. My distinctly not girlish scream of surprised anguish echoed around the forest as my eyes shot open to a starry night sky.

'Ugh, my everything hurts. I was probably unconscious for only a few hours, otherwise some kind of deadly animal would already have come and started eating me.'

For some reason lady luck decided to come back into my life as my head was propped up on a fallen tree trunk and my neck was not broken because of it.

Careful observation of my surroundings, or at least as much of my surroundings as I could see without moving anything except my eyes, didn't reveal any kind of animal footprints or any other signs that a predator was lurking in the bushes, so I focused on the bigger fish in the pond.

'How the hell am I going to survive in this forest with my body broken to pieces like a fucking puzzle? Maybe if I just stay quiet I can survive the night and then drink the morning dew to prevent myself from dehydrating?' Apparently fate decided to help me answer that question as a deer with crystal antlers jumped over the bushes.

'If I remember correctly that is a crystal deer. It's one of the more dangerous animals in this forest as it appears to be docile until you come close enough. At that point it will bite you and the poison on it's teeth will crystalize most of the blood in your body in a matter of minutes. If you somehow survive to that point it will crush your head with it's hooves and then feast on your body as it is in fact a carnivorous animal.' While that information shot through my head the deer came ever closer.

It's front hooves were only centimeters away from my legs. It calmly lowered it's head as if to nuzzle my right leg, but I knew better, not that I could do anything about it. It's head was millimeters away, when something shot from the underbrush to my left and crashed into the crystal deer, sending both, the crystal deer and the unknown attacker flying into the bushes, that the deer jumped over to get to me.

The sounds of fighting only lasted for a few seconds before a loud sound, similar to the sound of a thick branch breaking, echoed through the forest. Seconds later the black panther, that lead me to the dryad, came out of the bushes, the deer with a clearly broken neck being dragged behind it.

The panther set the dead deer next to my stiff and pain riddled body and looked at me, like it was waiting for me to say something.

"Uh, hey there. You wouldn't happen to know of a way to heal me, would you?" I wasn't really sure why I was asking an animal for help, but something in the panthers eyes told me, it was far more intelligent than it let on. So when I asked, I was both happy and weirded out when the panther nodded and shot out of my view.

Since I had nothing else to do I once again checked the condition of my body. Apparently it's funny playing with mortals for lady luck as I found I was both lucky and unlucky. The lucky part was, that my shoulder that was previously dislocated, popped back into place when I was blown away for the second time. The unlucky part was, that one of my legs was most definitely broken, the broken rib was joined by a few others, but I was pretty certain it actually put a hole into my lungs as I had been coughing up blood since I woke up.

Soon after I finished my self analysis the panther came back and put two green gemstones that were about as big as pills. I really had no idea what to do with them, so I decided to ask the panther: "So, should I like, eat these, or something?"

The panther made a motion that resembled how a human laughs surprisingly well, before it shook it's head and nudged the two gemstones closer to my good hand. I decided it wouldn't harm me to touch them, so I took one with my good hand. It was smooth and the light from the stars fractured beautifully in it's green hued interior.

'It's like it was enchanted. Wait. Of course! Magic!' Immediately after my late realization I put down the gemstone and tried to use a standard healing spell that Zero thought me, but the moment the magic started flowing through my hand it started stinging and the longer it went on the more it hurt. A few seconds in the skin on my hand started peeling off like it was burned. Safe to say I only kept the spell going for about 5 seconds, before I quickly decided that I was doing more damage than I was healing.

'If only using magic didn't damage my body. Hmm, a magical foci ...' As I looked around me for anything that cold transfer magic instead of my body, my eyes fell to the gemstones still siting in the grass.

'Zero told me about enchantments. If I remember correctly, he said that to enchant something you must make a spell matrix and then instead of using magic to cast it you must focus it into an object. If you do it correctly the object will then use the magic source you specified to cast the spell. Whelp, why not try it, after all it can hardly get wo-. No. Stop. Do not think that. Just try enchanting.'

And so after I got my thoughts under control I again picked up one of the gemstones with my good hand and focused on a simple healing matrix, with the specified source being the magic of the thing holding it. When I had a clear image of the matrix, I imagined inserting it into the gemstone, like you would a book into a box. Throughout the whole process I had my eyes closed in concentration. After I finished I felt a bit lighter and some of the previous pain was gone, so I opened my eyes and looked at the gemstone that was shining with a dull green light.
> Chapter 20: Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feeling the subtle drain of magic from the gemstone in front of me I would have jumped around from happiness if I wasn't badly hurt. My thoughts, of course reflected that: 'I did it! First try bitches! Who's the best? I'm the best. And it didn't even hurt like magic does normally for me! Maybe I can use stronger spells with this? Haha!'

After I calmed down somewhat, I decided to try to put some stronger healing magic into the other gemstone, after all, why would I destroy something that is already working, when I don't even know if the thing I will replace it with will work.

I laid the enchanted gemstone down into my broken right hand, so it was still touching my skin, and then picked up the unenchanted one with my left hand.

Like before, I closed my eyes and carefully pictured the matrix for the advanced healing spell in my head. When I was done I just imagined it being packed into a box that was the unenchanted gemstone.

This time the effects were far more obvious. The pain was receding at an incredible pace and when I opened my eyes I could see the the swelling in my previously broken hand and leg was practically gone. The only problem was, that I could feel my magical reserves running out. But because my body was being healed at such an incredible pace I decided to let it run for a little longer to finish healing me.

Minutes later I couldn't feel even a speck of pain and after a quick test I confirmed that all of my broken bones were healed. But the stone was still sucking up my magic like a sponge, so I made a quick decision and let it fall onto the floor. There the grass it landed on first got greener than before, but then suddenly in a matter of seconds wilted and turned to dust.

It took me a few seconds to comprehend what just happened, as I was fairly certain I put a healing spell into the gemstone and it wasn't meant to do whatever it did to the grass. As a test I put the gemstone with weaker healing magic from my hand into a new patch of grass. After observing how the grass did the exact same thing again, albeit much slower, it came to me: the healing magic in the gemstones was made to always run as long as the user had magic, but that included the magic that kept the user alive. Meaning, that after you were drained of the usual reserves of magic, it would literally squeeze you dry of the rest.

It didn't take me too long to think of how to change the matrix for the weaker gemstone, so it would only activate if the user had the magic in their reserves to activate it, but it wasn't really what I wanted. What I wanted was that it would heal me, only if I was injured.

I was woken up from my thoughts by the panther sliding under my left arm. Finally awake to my situation I carefully scooped both gemstones into the pockets of my pants and got up on my feet. The headache and sudden dizziness reminded me, that I was still low on magic, which I quickly nullified by using my magic sight.

But what I saw when I activated it actually disturbed me a little. Before when I used it in the forest I could see the magic in the plants and the earth like small light green rivers that together flowed deeper into the forest, but now there was no previous order, the rivers all had different directions, some just cutting off in the middle of nowhere and some flowing into others. Lastly everywhere around me I could see white dust like particles falling, what I imagine using immense amounts of magic would leave behind, a kind of magical fallout.

But what terrified me the most was what I could see in the direction of the previous battlefield. An unnatural whiteness, like a fog or a cloud, but more solid like paint. Unsure if I was seeing right I walked towards it like in a trance. When the dust like particles started becoming more and more frequent I finally realized the whiteness was made from them. But I wasn't dissuaded from taking a look at the actual place, so I turned my magic sight off and continued on my way.

Arriving at the glade I was meet with a horrifying sight, the ground was just a lake of lava, slowly cooling down. All of the trees in the surroundings were burned to a crisp and the trees farther than that were dead and withered. Of the mighty tree in the middle of the clearing only the burning stump was somehow resisting the lava. Everything in a 1 kilometer radius was dead, simple as that. And I dare say it was a contained battle as most of it happened in the air kilometers above ground.

Taking in the sight around me I shivered at the thought of what would have happened if I wasn't blown away when the dryad landed. Then I turned around and tried to walk away, only for my legs to lock up, causing me to fall to the ground.

Finally the stress had reached me and I curled up into a sobbing ball. I stayed like that until a paw touched my back. I shot up, fully prepared to defend myself, only to be met with the black panther that had saved my life more than once. And the dam shattered to pieces. Using both my arms I grabbed the panther and pulled it into my lap, where I then cried my eyes out into it's soft coat.

I'm not sure how long we stayed that way, but the next morning I woke up in another clearing, from where I couldn't even see the magical fallout, and the panther was nowhere to be seen. So I decided to think about something else other than how miserable my life is and stood up thinking about what I should I do now. I had quite a few options but the one I liked the most was a normal life in seclusion, where I wouldn't have to deal with crazy pony gods, or ponies, or any kind of self centered magical being with a huge ego in general.

There in the back of my mind there was still the thought of revenge against ponies for what they did to me, but my fear pushed it into the depths of my mind. I was afraid, not so much of ponies, not of their magic or their intelligence. No, what I was afraid of, was that I couldn't understand what they were thinking. I was always good at telling what the other party was thinking, but the inhabitants of this world were a mystery to me. I could play poker with a human and rob them blind, but these ponies, these mythological beings, including the dryad, to me, they were an unknown. And so my fear of the unknown prevailed over my wish for revenge.
> Chapter 21: The Sun has died and she killed it
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia pov

Today like any other day I had woken up before dawn and did my duty of raising the sun, while my sister lowered her moon. It had always been a calming experience for me to raise the sun. The strain on my magic, the warmth of the star, it gave me a sense of peace, of permanence, everything else had always been ever changing, evolving, but the sun stayed as it was, for it was already perfect.

After I was done I took a shower and put on clean regalia, that I had polished the day before, after me and my sister fought against the Entity.

Even after hundreds of years of training to not let my emotions show on my face, the thought of the Entity easily broke my facade of a serene smile, only to be switched with a muzzle scrounged in disgust and eyes full of hostility. It took me a moment to calm myself enough to put the facade back on, but the memory still lingered.

After a few more minutes of thinking I trotted towards the dining hall, where my sister was already waiting for me to arrive with a plate full of pancakes in front of her.

"Good morning, sister." we said in almost perfect unity, before Luna attacked her pancakes with reckless abandon, not sparing a single one. I just observed her for a few minutes, with a rather rare for me, genuine smile, before I too started eating the pancakes the waiter brought before me.

When we both ate our share my sister went to sleep, while I made a heavy sight and headed towards the throne room. I was tired from the fight the day before and I really didn't want to deal with the nobles' babbling about matters that didn't really matter or worse, thinking they have the right to try marry me. Seriously, sometimes I worry their stupidity is genetic and grows through the generations.

In any case, I had arrived in my throne room, where I sat on my throne and after another long sight gave the guards the go ahead sign, to let the first pony in.





It only took the nobles 3 hours to bore me to death and I still had 2 more. While I was thinking about just adjourning the court and saying it was because of personal matters, I was surprised by a bright flash of lavender light, a telltale sign of the teleportation spell of my student.

Focusing my look towards the spot where the flash originated, I dismissed the noble that I was 'listening' to with a wave of my hoof.

"Court is adjourned for today." was all I said, before the guards had to drag him out, because he didn't want to leave, big surprise. Bringing my attention back to my student I was happy to see she was taking care of herself. The first time she had to preen I had to guide her through it, but like with all things she had to learn she picked it up incredibly quickly. Yes, Twilight was truly a one of a kind genius, she overshadowed even Sunset Shimmer, that had been a one in one million talent.

Twilight looked around, presumably to confirm her surroundings, like I had taught her to do after every long range teleportation spell, before she glared at me and said: "Princess Celestia, why have you not replied to my messages?"

It took me a second to realize what she was talking about, before I looked her in the eyes with a serious and tired look, and said: "Twilight, what I told you the first time that you sent the message still stands. I will not risk the safety of my guards and much less my army, because you would like to find a single human that had escaped into the Everfree, due to your negligence."

But I knew Twilight wouldn't give up with just that and she confirmed it by repeating what she told my in one of her letters: "But, the human hurt me, causing me, a princess,  an injury is a grave offense punishable by a lifetime in the dungeons or in some cases even death! The girl is a criminal on the loose and as a princess I demand that she be caught and executed!"

The longer she talked the louder she got and she was pretty much shouting the last sentence, making me cringe at the volume. Trying to calm her down I asked with a calming voice: "Twilight, maybe we could go to my study to continue this talk. I believe the guards are uncomfortable with it. I can also get you some tea and biscuits to cal-"

To my surprise Twilight, my student, who had always listened to every word I said till the end, interrupted me with an angry screech: "NO! I DO NOT WANT YOUR BISCUITS OR TEA AND I DON'T CARE ABOUT HOW THE GUARDS FEEL, THEY ARE NOT IMPORTANT! I AM IMPORTANT! AND I! DEMAND! THAT! HUMAN'S! ..."

She took a deep breath and I tried to cast a silencing spell on her, but was too late: "HEAD!"

Her shout shattered any glass in a few meter radius and you could practically see the eardrums of the closest guards bursting as blood sprayed out of their ears and they fell to the ground unconscious. Twilight's mane was disheveled, her wings were spread wide, but to me the most striking feature and the one that hurt me the most, was her death glare, directed at me.

It reminded me of the look Sunset gave me, the day she went through the mirror. As Twilight turned her back to me and ignited her horn a single tear fell from the corner of my eye and before it could splatter on the ground Twilight was gone. For a moment everything was still. Then the throne room exploded with activity. Medics were called, reports were being made and magical traces were being scanned.

But in all that chaos all I could thing about was the glare Twilight gave me, before she teleported away. It hurt me more than any dagger and when I was finally brought back to the real world my sister was sitting bon a chair in front of me with worry written all over her, while I was laying on a bed in my room.

I gave her a weak smile and said: "I am fine, sister."

She looked me in the eyes and answered: "physically yes, but what I am worried about sister, is your emotional state."

I knew she could see right through me, yet I still lied, to this day I don't know why. "I truly am fine, sister. I... I will manage." I said, this time I forced myself to give her a bigger smile.

"Very well then. If you need to talk you know where to find me." Was her answer that was accompanied with a sight and a serious look. She then walked out of the room, leaving me alone to contemplate, what had gone wrong. I was certain Twilight had a better reason for her actions. She was always kind and friendly, even after she became an alicorn that hadn't changed. She wouldn't do something like this just because I refused to endanger my subjects.

Looking outside the window I noticed it was almost time to lower the sun and raise the moon. Yet this time the feel of the sun didn't calm me like it usually did. There was no usual warmth, it felt almost like the sun was dead.

As I stared at the slowly appearing stars I remembered an old poem:

 "The sun shined bright, just the day before"


 "I waked under it for hours"


 "and basked in it's warm and calming light."


 "But today the warmth is gone"


 "the calming light has disappeared"


 "for the sun was betrayed"


 "they killed it and now it is no more."


 "The sun is dead and all that is left,"


 "is a dark, cold world."